Children of home dialysis patients
M. O. Tsaltas
Fifteen children of six families in which one parent was undergoing home
dialysis were examined by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory,
human figure drawings, and family interviews. All the children were found
to be clinically depressed, and two thirds had a history of being referred
by teachers to school counselors and psychiatrists for behavioral problems
in school. Of these referred children, all showed disorders of psychomotor
activity and reduced academic achievement. There was no clear-cut evidence
that these children were depressed because of exposure to home dialysis per
se. The most disturbed children seemed to be responding to depressed
parents or to partial object loss. A controlled, prospective study is
planned to clarify this question.
