Educational Session Offers Strategies to Address Mental Health Effects of Kidney Disease

A presentation at the NephCure 2025 Patient Summit and Youth Summit in New York City focused on ways people with kidney disease and their loved ones can protect and improve their mental health. Clinicians can use the information to support their patients with kidney disease.

Mental Health Effects Are Widespread and Often Unaddressed

Kidney disease can have significant effects on mental health, with patients often experiencing increased rates of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric conditions.

Living with a chronic condition adds stressors, including attending many doctors’ appointments, getting regular tests, restricting diet, managing medications, worrying about the future, depending on others or feeling like a burden, getting enough sleep, addressing financial concerns, and more. In addition, treatments for psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia can cause or worsen kidney damage.

In a recent survey, two-thirds (67%) of patients with kidney disease reported symptoms of depression. Those symptoms can have serious consequences: A quarter (27%) of respondents considered self-harm or suicide due to kidney disease, and a third reported that mental health interfered with their ability to take care of their physical health.

However, 68% of survey respondents said they had not been offered any support for their mental health.

Tips to Manage Mental Health

During a presentation titled Beyond the Doctor’s Office: Managing Emotional and Mental Health, Janay Thompson, LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker in Atlanta, Georgia, offered helpful strategies for patients and the clinicians who support them.

“Emotional health focuses on effectively managing feelings and moods, fostering healthy relationships, and handling emotions such as anger, stress, and sadness,” she explained.

To do this, she encouraged patients to:

• Focus on recognizing your emotions and appropriately expressing them.
• Accurately manage your medications and report any adherence problems to your healthcare team.
• Create a self-care plan, including establishing good sleep habits, eating a healthy diet, being active, and doing things you enjoy.
• Participate in social activities to connect with others and to establish or maintain a support system.
• Set boundaries. This involves learning what works best for your mental health, implementing changes, and enforcing them with yourself and others.
• Consider therapy or counseling to proactively address the emotional and psychological challenges of living with kidney disease.

Thompson also emphasized the importance of building coping skills. They can help patients build resilience, reduce stress, and manage emotions. Effective coping skills are different for everyone, but she offered several examples, including hiking or getting another form of regular exercise, journaling, and reading.

One popular and effective way to build coping skills is through meditation, Thompson said. Meditation is free or at a low cost, can be done anywhere, and takes short periods of time, she added. Apps on a smartphone can put meditation tools at a person’s fingertips (eg, Headspace, Smiling Mind, Insight Timer, Calm). Websites such as positivepsychology.com, mindfulnessbox.com, and lovejoyandwonder.com also can help patients learn how to meditate.

“Meditation is beneficial because it can help reframe the current situation, help individuals be more self-aware, reduce negative feelings, and help with patience,” Thompson said. “It helps develop the ability to be mindful—moment by moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and the surrounding environment.”

About the Event

The NephCure Patient Summit is designed for individuals affected by rare kidney diseases, including patients, caregivers, families, advocates, and healthcare partners. To learn more about NephCure or to participate in future NephCure events, visit nephcure.org.

Source:

Survey reveals impact on kidney patients’ mental health – time for action. Kidney Research UK. https://www.kidneyresearchuk.org/2022/02/23/survey-reveals-impact-on-kidney-patients-mental-health-time-for-action/. Published online February 23, 2022. Accessed online April 14, 2025.