Psychobiologic Factors and Individual Survival on Chronic Renal Hemodialysis--A Two Year Follow-up: Part I*

All patients being treated in the chronic renal hemodialysis unit at the Veteran's Administration Hospital, West Haven, Connecticut between September 1, 1969 and June 30, 1970 (n=21) were evaluated on psychological, biochemical, and physiological parameters and followed prospectively through September 1, 1971. During this two-year interval, 7 patients expired and 14 survived. Factors associated with membership in the survival group included: (1) affiliation with Roman Catholic faith, (2) continued presence of one or both parents, (3) low mean blood urea nitrogen levels, and (4) length of survival that was significantly correlated with the constraint scale on the Miller-Quinlan Boundary Image Test. The implication of this latter finding is that marked indifference to fellow dialysis patients has positive survival value.