A Case-Control Study on the Affective Temperament Profiles, Anxiety and Depression Levels of Patients with Chronic Renal Failure

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the affective temperament profile of patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) in comparison to healthy subjects and to evaluate depression and anxiety status of patients.

Methods: This was a case-control study into which 122 CRF patients (63 males, 59 females) and 100 healthy age-and gender-matched controls (66 females, 34 males) were included. The affective temperament profile was determined by Turkish version of Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Auto-questionnaire (TEMPS-A). For the assessment of depression and anxiety, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used.

Results: Of the 122 patients, 28 (23%) were in predialysis, 22 (18%) periton dialysis, 30 (24.6%) hemodialysis and 42 (34.4%) transplantation. The majority of participants (n=169, 76.1%) had no dominant affective temperament according to TEMPS-A. For the remaining participants, the most common dominant affective temperament was depressive temperament (8.6%) followed by mixed temperament (7.7%) and anxious temperament (2.7%). There was no signifcantly difference in terms of affective temperament traits between patients and controls. Patient group had significantly higher depression and anxiety scores than healthy controls. There was no correlation between laboratory results and affective temperaments, anxiety, depression scores of patients. There was no significant difference between predialysis, periton dialysis, hemodialysis, and transplantation subgroups in terms of anxiety, depression or affective temperament traits (p>0.05 for all).

Conclusion: There is no affective temperament profile specific to patients with CRF. However, considering the high rate of depression and anxiety among patients with CRF, knowing affective temperament profile of patients will guide clinicians through management of psychiatric disorders and CRF itself, thus will improve disease outcome and patients' quality of life.