The impact of chronic heamodialysis on the personality of patients with chronic renal failure

People with chronic diseases, deal with permanent changes in their everyday life. At the same time these patients appear to have different pathological behavior and personality disturbances as a result of the disorders of their biological functions. AIM: The aim of this study is the examination of the psychological behavior of patients with chronic renal failure who submit themselves to recurrent heamodialysis (CRH). MATERIAL-METHODS: The research was based on the completion of a questionnaire which has been used on foreigners and Greek patients who complained about chronic diseases. This questionnaire guarantees the highest reliability of all so that it will be possible to specify the negative influence of their disease upon the different sides of their life. Emphasis should be given on the fact that the personality questionnaire of Eysenck has been intensively evaluated on the Greek population as very trustworthy for secure conclusions. It included 84 questions in four different disorders (psychotism, neurotism, ex/introversion and check inversion for inaccuracies). The questionnaire has been proved very useful for the evaluation of the influence of the different interventions upon the quality of life of patients under heamodialysis. It appeared also that it was more reliable in comparison with the Sickness Impact Profile and with a test, which was about the exercise under stress conditions. RESULTS: It has been discovered that all the three scales of control of the personality disturbances have systematically been influenced according to the control group of 138 persons from different age and sex groups. Furthermore, it has been found that the men patients under the CRH were in lower region of the scale of neurotism while women patients appeared to be lower in the scale of psychotism. The T-test shows that there is no important statistic difference between the two sexes according to the quality of their job. There is also no important difference statistically between the educational level and the range of the disorder of psychotism, neurotism and introversion. Moreover, there is no important impact of the medical institution, which has been identified statistically from the variability analysis of the personality disturbance of patients with chronic renal failure under the CRH programs. In addition, those patients who visit the institutions have the same rate of psychotism and neurotism. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study reveals that the patients of chronic renal failure who ended up in CRH groups, showed the tense to develop neurotism, indecision and other serious psychological problems which affect negatively their personality.

Keywords: Chronic renal failure, chronic periodic haemodialysis, personality disorders with chronic heamodialysis