title: Euthanasia of patients with the chronic renal failure.
abstract: This study deals with frequency and form of euthanasia in dialysis patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) within the period from 2000 to 2006. Of total number of 2700 patients on dialysis we examined n = 753 of them. Examinees with the Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN) (n = 348) were in the first group, and the Control group was formed of patients with other diseases (n = 405). In this study the following methods were used: adapted Questionnaire from the Renal Registry of B&H, Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hamilton's Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Mini-Mental Scale of Estimation (MMSE). Age of the BEN group of patients ranged: 64.77 +/- 8.86 and the control one 53.85 +/- 3.60. Multivariate analysis for the BEN group with passive euthanasia was: 0.760 (95%, CI = 0.590-0.710) (p = 0.001) and for the active one was 0.450 (95%, CI = 0.125-0.510 (p = 0.001). Euthanasia is associated with the rural life and renal heredity, and psychological BAI scale-total, HDRS-total and MMSE-total. For the BEN group passive euthanasia is 3.75% as well as active 0.86%. The findings stressed that euthanasia of dialysis patients requires better nephrological-psychiatric control and social care in B&H as well as complete program for the CRF samples protection too.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina. milanov@telrad.net
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novaković
authors.forename: Dragan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Babić
authors.forename: Gordana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dedić
authors.forename: Ljubica
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leposavić
authors.forename: Aleksanadar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milovanović
authors.forename: Mitar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novaković
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001449:Balkan Nephropathy / Q000523:psychology; D005065:Euthanasia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged