Investigating quality of life in patients suffering from end-stage renal disease with a special focus on psychological distress

Quality of life (LQ: physical, psychological, social well-being, functional abilities) has become a relevant measure of medical psychology. The article presents selected results of an ongoing longitudinal study investigating QoL in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with a special focus on psychological distress. Since 1995, patients of the Transplantation Center, University of Essen participate in yearly intervals to take part in a psychodiagnostic survey (rate of participation 90-95 %). Until today, four sequences of data collection have been completed (T1-T4). The psychodiagnostic approach combines global and specific LQ measures. Comparing patients before (waiting list for kidney transplantation) and after kidney transplantation, and healthy controls (T1, each group n = 149, matched triples: age, gender), the transplanted group demonstrated the same proportion of distressed people ("case definition" Brief Symptom Inventory, BSI) as the controls (36 %). Every second patient on the transplantation waiting list demonstrated high psychological distress. The psychological distress before kidney transplantation predicted disease-specific and generic QoL after transplantation (17-25 % explanation of variance), independent from demographic and clinical variables. In conclusion, we propose to combine the BSI as well as disease-specific (ESRD-SCL™ after kidney transplantation) and global questionnaires investigating QoL in ESRD patients.