Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this research was to determine the prevalence of depression in patients undergoing hemodialysis and also to prevent and treat depression by clarifying the risk factors for these patients.

Method: 60 patients (21 men, 39 women) who had undergone hemodialysis were selected as the subjects of the study by convenient sampling. A demo-graphic questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory were used to collect data the results were then analyzed by c² statistical test .

Findings: In this study, 50% of the subjects were afflicted with depression of which, 33.3% suffered from mild depression, 15% from mo-derate depression, and 1.7% suffered from severe depression. There was no significant differ-rence between the two groups of depressed and non depressed patients across gender, age, marital status, and duration of dialysis factors. There was however a negative correlation noted between the level of education and depression.

Results: Considering the high pre-valence of depression, attending to the mental health of dialysis patients is indispensable in the area of depression. Specific plans need to be executed to prevent and treat their dep-ression.