Anxiety and Symptom Burden in Hemodialysis Patients

Anxiety has been identified as a prevalent and significant co-morbid condition in patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) being treated with hemodialysis. In particular, anxious sensitivity to symptoms commonly experienced by dialysis patients may lead patients to prematurely terminate their dialysis sessions and may have consequences on their dialysis adequacy and overall quality of life. The proposed study will examine the relationships between anxiety, depression, quality of life, symptom burden and dialysis prescription adherence. The primary regression analyses will be used to predict the influence of anxiety and depression (independently and together) on measures of adherence behaviors.