Depression may heighten risk of kidney failure

Depression, already implicated in cardiac disease, is also a factor in the increased risk of developing kidney failure.

Lead investigator Willem Kop, neuropsychologist at the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands, and colleagues studied 5,785 people from four counties across the US for 10 years.

Investigators examined whether depression predicted the onset of kidney disease or other medical problems in which the kidneys play a critical role, reports the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

The participants were 65 years and older and not yet on dialysis. They completed a questionnaire measuring depressive symptoms and a broad range of medical measurements, according to a Tilburg statement.

The researchers found that depression coincided with the presence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and was 20 percent more common in individuals with kidney disease.

The study shows that depression predicted subsequent rapid decline in kidney function, new onset of clinically severe kidney disease, and hospitalisations that were complicated by acute kidney injury.

“People with elevated depressive symptoms have a higher risk of subsequent adverse kidney disease outcomes,” Kop explained.