Religiousness and Symptoms of Depression in Native and Immigrant Chronic Dialysis Patients in the Netherlands.

For immigrant chronic dialysis patients, religious behavior and religious coping may have a different impact on depressive symptoms compared to native patients. This study aims to describe both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between religious behavior and coping with symptoms of depression for 281 native and 277 immigrant dialysis patients in the Netherlands. A higher prevalence of depressive symptoms was found in immigrant compared to native patients (49% vs. 36%). No significant cross-sectional or longitudinal associations were found in both groups between religious behavior and positive religious coping with depressive symptoms. Strong significant cross-sectional associations were found between negative religious coping items and depressive symptoms in both groups, while no longitudinal associations were found. So, similar impact of religiousness on the presence of depressive symptoms was found for both native and immigrant dialysis patients. Therefore, these results do not explain the higher prevalence of depressive symptoms found in immigrant chronic dialysis patients compared to native patients.

Validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory for use in end-stage renal disease patients.

OBJECTIVE: To validate the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for use in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and to compare the outcome of both screening measures with each other. DESIGN: Cross-sectional and between-subjects design. The independent variable was the diagnosis depression by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). The dependent variables were the HADS and BDI total score. METHODS: All 130 patients with ESRD who were treated with haemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialyses in the Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital in Amsterdam were eligible for this study and were asked to fill out both HADS and BDI. The outcomes of both rating scales were compared with the diagnosis major depressive episode based on the MINI, which was seen as the gold standard. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to choose optimal cut-off values. RESULTS: Of 62 enrolled subjects, 21 (34%) were diagnosed with a depressive disorder. Optimal cut-off values were ≥12 (HADS) and ≥13 (BDI). Sensitivity was 81.0% (HADS) and 75.0% (BDI). Specificity was 90.2% for both. CONCLUSIONS: Both HADS and BDI are valid screening instruments for the diagnosis depression in ESRD patients but there is no statistical difference found between both rating scales.