New research findings which highlight the detrimental effect of depression on patients with end-stage kidney disease has celebrated at the University of Hertfordshire 2010 Awards Ceremonies yesterday (17 November 2010) at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban.
Dr Joseph Chilcot a PhD student at the University's Health and Human Sciences Research Institute was awarded a Chancellor's Medal for Outstanding Achievement in a Doctoral Research Programme for his PhD submission on the relationship between illness perceptions and depression symptoms in patients with End-Stage Renal Disease.
Working with the Renal Unit at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage, Dr Chilcot carried out a longitudinal study of 160 patients and measured their perceptions of their illness just after they started dialysis, six months later and at twelve months.
Dr Chilcot found that illness perceptions were strongly related to concurrent depression symptoms, more so than clinical factors including disease severity results, which were supported in a cross-sectional study of 215 dialysis patients.
"We found that perception of illness was a strong predictor of depression symptoms in this patients population, more so than clinical factors including measures of disease severity. Of further importance was the finding that both depression symptoms and perception of illness predicted patient survival. In other words patients with a more negative perception had reduced survival"
As a result of these findings, Dr Chilcot plans to devise a therapeutic intervention geared towards changing people's beliefs about their illness.
Dr Chilcot is among the 4,500 new graduates who are invited to celebrate academic success in St Albans this week. The annual Awards ceremony for the University of Hertfordshire took place at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban.
The Chancellor's Medal for Outstanding Achievement in a Doctoral Research Programme celebrates excellence in research in PhDs and Doctoral research programmes and to recognise the quality research being carried out in the research institutes. The award honours outstanding research of value in its field.
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