Complications may be more likely in kidney disease patients diagnosed with depression than among other kidney patients, U. S. researchers have said.

It has been reported that researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas find long-term hospitalization, long-term dialysis treatment or dying within the year were twice as likely to occur in chronic kidney disease patients diagnosed with depression as in patients without depression.

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study concluded chronic kidney disease patients with depression are more likely to have poorer health outcomes than those without depression, even after adjusting for age, race and other current medical conditions.

Study lead author Dr. Susan Hedayati says in a statement, "Clinicians should consider screening chronic kidney disease patients for depression, especially since depression is also associated with poor quality of life."

It was further noted by the report that Hedayati and colleagues monitored 267 chronic kidney patients for one year. All were military veterans; all but two ere male; the mean age was 65 and slightly more than half were Caucasian. Fifty-six of the patients were diagnosed with a current major depressive episode. (With Inputs from Agencies)