Personality correlates of renal dialysis patients and their spouses

The MMPI as a measure of the emotional correlates of chronic hemodialysis: a review

The MMPI has been the most frequently used objective personality measure in studies of the emotional correlates of chronic hemodialysis for end-stage renal failure. This paper reviews MMPI findings of these studies and examines the utility of this instrument with chronic dialysis patients. Overviews of the basic research strategies employed and of the methodological shortcomings of the published studies are presented. Research findings are reviewed, and pros and cons of using the MMPI with this population are briefly discussed. The most consistent finding to date has been elevation in the "neurotic triad" (scales 1, 2, and 3), but the meaning of this configuration for dialysis patients is ambiguous.

Longitudinal study of neuropsychological functioning in patients on chronic hemodialysis: a preliminary report

This study is part of a five-year project to investigate the long term effect of chronic hemodialysis on patients with end-stage renal failure. Previous research has associated hemodialysis with progressive dialysis encephalopathy (PDE), which is characterized by speech disturbances, cognitive impairment, myoclonus and behavioral changes. Little is known about the cause or the course of this syndrome except that it begins 14-36 months after treatment onset and usually culminates in death. The purpose of this study was to investigate neuropsychological (cognitive and behavioral) functioning in dialysis patients over a period of years. To date, 34 patients have been studied for 22 months utilizing a cross-sectional method comparing patients at different stages of treatment combined with a longitudinal method of repeated evaluations over time. Current findings show improved cognitive functioning during at least the first year of treatment and no evidence of cognitive deterioration in patients on dialysis for more than one year (M = 4.3). These findings offer strong evidence that PDE is not necessarily a general phenomenon among patients on chronic hemodialysis.