High neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in maintenance hemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Depression is one of the most important psychiatric disorders in chronic kidney disease patients who undergo maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Previous studies have shown that low-grade inflammation is involved in the progression of depressive symptoms. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is an inflammatory marker that is inexpensive and easy to measure. However, the association between NLR and depression symptoms in MHD patients has not been examined. METHODS: In this single-center, cross-sectional study, we included 160 patients undergoing MHD. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to assess depressive symptoms. NLR was calculated as the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes. Multinomial logistic regression and multivariate linear regression analyses were used to examine the association between NLR and depressive symptoms in MHD patients. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were detected in 36.7% of the 160 MHD patients. Multinomial logistic regression showed that NLR was a significant predictor of mild (odds ratio [OR]: 1.383, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.015–1.884, p = 0.04) and moderate/moderately severe depressive symptoms (OR: 1.441, 95% CI: 1.017–2.042, p = 0.04) in MHD patients, adjusted for age, sex, Kt/V, dialysis duration, history of kidney transplantation, history of hypertension, and Charlson comorbidity index score. In addition, multivariate linear regression analysis showed that NLR was an independent influencing factor for PHQ-9 score in MHD patients, after adjusting for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that NLR can be used as a biomarker for predicting depressive symptoms in MHD patients.