Relationship between the course of depression symptoms and the left ventricular mass index and left ventricular filling pressure in chronic haemodialysis patients

Music therapy-induced changes in salivary cortisol level are predictive of cardiovascular mortality in patients under maintenance hemodialysis

Background

Music therapy has been applied in hemodialysis (HD) patients for relieving mental stress. Whether the stress-relieving effect by music therapy is predictive of clinical outcome in HD patients is still unclear.

Methods

We recruited a convenience sample of 99 patients on maintenance HD and randomly assigned them to the experimental (n=49) or control (n=50) group. The experimental group received relaxing music therapy for 1 week, whereas the control group received no music therapy. In the experimental group, we compared cardiovascular mortality in the patients with and without cortisol changes.

Results

The salivary cortisol level was lowered after 1 week of music therapy in the experimental group (−2.41±3.08 vs 1.66±2.11 pg/mL, P<0.05), as well as the frequency of the adverse reaction score (−3.35±5.76 vs −0.81±4.59, P<0.05), the severity of adverse reactions score (−1.93±2.73 vs 0.33±2.71, P<0.05), and hemodialysis stressor scale (HSS) score (−6.00±4.68 vs −0.877±7.08, P<0.05). The difference in salivary cortisol correlated positively with HD stress score scales (r=0.231, P<0.05), systolic blood pressure (r=0.264, P<0.05), and respiratory rates (r=0.369, P<0.05) and negatively with finger temperature (r=−0.235, P<0.05) in the total study population. The 5-year cardiovascular survival in the experimental group was higher in patients whose salivary cortisol lowered by <0.6 pg/mL than that in patients whose salivary cortisol lowered by >0.6 pg/mL (83.8% vs 63.6%, P<0.05).

Conclusion

Providing music during HD is an effective complementary therapy to relieve the frequency and severity of adverse reactions, as well as to lower salivary cortisol levels. Differences in salivary cortisol after music therapy may predict cardiovascular mortality in patients under maintenance HD.

Therapeutic drug monitoring of antidepressants in haemodialysis patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The co-morbidity of depressive disorder and chronic kidney failure is remarkably common. However, knowledge about the influence of haemodialysis on the serum concentration of antidepressants is sparse. In this study we examined the influence of haemodialysis on the serum concentrations of the antidepressants amitriptyline (and its active metabolite nortriptyline) and mirtazapine.

METHODS

The authors retrospectively evaluated therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM)-analyses obtained in eight different regional medical dialysis centres before and after haemodialysis and compared serum concentrations of amitriptyline and mirtazapine using t-tests.

RESULTS

Mean serum concentrations of the sum of amitriptyline + nortriptyline (before: 75.52 ng/mL; after: 59.35 ng/mL; p < 0.001) and mirtazapine (before: 53.45 ng/mL; after: 38.31 ng/mL; p < 0.036) decreased significantly with haemodialysis. Haemodialysis patients received rather low doses of amitriptyline (mean 36.5 mg; SD 17.6; range 10-75 mg) and mirtazapine (mean 24.7 mg; SD 9.1; range 15-45 mg).

CONCLUSION

For haemodialysis patients with depression an adequate antidepressant drug dosage must be administered. TDM is necessary in order to optimize antidepressant therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease.

The association of mental health over time with cardiac outcomes in HEMO study patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Poor mental health over time is significantly associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the general population, which is the leading cause of death in dialysis patients. Most studies of dialysis patients, however, have investigated the relationship between baseline mental health measurements and all-cause mortality and not mental health measured longitudinally throughout a study and cause-specific mortality.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS

This study examined the association of changes in mental health over time with all-cause and cause-specific deaths and cardiac hospitalizations in the Hemodialysis study patients. Mental health was assessed at baseline and annually during the study with short form 36 mental health index scores. Poorer mental health was defined by a mental health index score≤60.

RESULTS

Patients with poorer mental health at baseline were more likely to have less than a high school education and be unmarried, have significantly higher index of coexistent disease scores, and report taking β-blockers and sleep medications. Low mental health scores over time were independently associated with a decrease in survival time from all-cause mortality by -0.06 (-0.10, -0.03; P<0.001), and they also significantly hastened time to first cardiac hospitalization by -0.08 (-0.13, -0.02; P=0.01) and composite of first cardiac hospitalization or cardiac death by -0.04 (-0.07, -0.02; P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study found an independent association between poor mental health over time and all-cause mortality, cardiac hospitalization, and the composite of cardiac death or cardiac hospitalization in hemodialysis patients. The results underscore the importance of attention to mental health related to cardiac complications and even death in dialysis patients.