From April 2000 to April 2001, a total of 108 chronic stable haemodialysed patients (34 males aged 57.76 +/- 12.68 years under haemodialysis treatment for 31.41 +/- 24.71 months and 74 females aged 54.99 +/- 12.87 years under haemodialysis for 41.47 +/- 33.47 months) were studied for signs of clinical depression. Depression was measured by using 'The Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ)'. After analysing various possible factors, we chose to study three dimensions: affective change, somatic complaint and cognitive disturbance. Thirty-six (33.4%) of the patients were found to have TDQ scores above 19; our cut-off value. Diabetic patients were also found to have higher depression scores and affective change scores than those without diabetes. The elderly suffered more from somatic complaints, and patients without jobs also tended to have higher depression scores. We compared the nutrition indexes and uraemic toxin removal indexes of those with higher depression scores (score> or =19) with those with normal scores (score <19), and we found no differences between the two groups. We found that an underlying disease and job status were the major differences found in the two groups. Therefore, our findings suggest that the depression found in our chronic haemodialysed patients was not a result of the physical conditions, but a result of psychosocial problems indicating a need for psychosocial support for these patients.