The Effect of Spirituality Counseling on Anxiety and Depression in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: In attention of increasing prevalence psychological problems, complications and consequences of hemodialies and important role of nurses in psychological support of patients, application of complementary therapies such as spirituality counseling is very important. Aim: This study investigates the effect of spirituality counseling on anxiety and depression in hemodialysis patient. Methods: This randomized clinical trial study included 90 patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis in Amin Hospital, Isfahan (2013), which were randomly assigned into two groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of spiritual counseling and the control group took routine care. Data were collected with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and were analyzed using independent and paired t-test and exact fisher test in SPSS software version 11.5. Results: Statistical results showed no significant difference in demographic variables between intervention and control groups (p>0/05). In addition, independent t-test showed no significant difference between the mean anxiety and depression scores in the intervention and control groups (p>0/05). However, after applying spiritual counseling, average scores of anxiety and depression decreased in intervention group in comparison with the control group. Paired t-test showed significant differences between average scores of anxiety and depression scores before and after the spiritual counseling in an intervention group (p0/05). Conclusion: Spiritual counseling could decrease the anxiety and depression in dialysis patients; therefore it is recommended that this approach performed as a complementary, effective, non-invasive, low cost nursing intervention to decrease the psychological problems of these patients.