Depression and pain in patients with dialysis can have serious effects on health increasing the medical costs, a new research shows.
The researchers aimed to find out whether antidepressants and analgesic therapies improve outcomes and reduce costs. For the study, researchers conducted survey of 286 dialysis patients every month for 24 months between 2009 and 2011.
The results showed that 21 percent of patients with depressive symptoms missed the dialysis. Also, the risk of emergency department visits in these patients was 24 percent and hospitalization rates were 19 percent and mortality was 40 percent.
Apart from this, researchers also found that patients with severe pain were 16 percent more likely to undergo abbreviated dialysis treatments, visit the emergency department and be hospitalized.
"Patients receiving chronic hemodialysis experience a very high burden of physical and emotional symptoms. While not all symptoms are easily treated, there are effective therapies for depressive symptoms and pain," lead study author Steven Weisbord, MD, MSc, said in a press release.
Weisbord said, "These findings underscore the need to determine whether the effective treatment of these symptoms, in addition to making patients feel better, can also reduce utilization of healthcare resources and costs and improve patient-centered outcomes."
Previous studies have shown that depression and pain are present in approximately 20 percent and 50 percent of patients receiving hemodialysis, respectively. Another recent study showed that depression in older people increases the risk of dementia in elderly people.
The findings of the current study are published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
