OBJECTIVE: To determine whether symptoms of anxiety or depression are factors associated with poor compliance of fluid restriction and dietary selection in chronic renal failure patients in hemodialysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectorial, descriptive, comparative and correlation study was designed between january and march of 2000, patients were selected in 3 hemodialysis centers of Social Security in Lima with Karnofsky index > 80, without an acute failure of treatment or default from therapy in the last 3 months. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with Beck Depression Inventory and Anxiety Symptoms with the Zung Scale. Poor compliance with fluid restriction was defined as an interdialytic weight gain > or = 2.5 kg and dietary restriction as a level of predialysis serum potassium > or = 6 meq/L. The evaluation of risk factors was made with a simple and multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Eighty eight patients were selected, 47 (53.4%) were men, the average values of age, time on dialysis, level of creatinine and hemoglobin were respectively 55.9 +/- 15.8 years old, 48.8 +/- 38.8 months, 8.5 +/- 1.9 mg/dl and 7.7 +/- 1.4 g/dl. The number of patients with adequacy of dialysis, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, poor compliance with fluid restriction and dietary selection were respectively 50 (62.5%), 54 (61.4%), 46 (52.3%), 47 (53.4%) and 31 (35.2%). The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that depressive symptoms are the only factor associated with poor compliance with fluid restriction (OR = 2.7, p = 0.002) and dietary selection (OR = 2.5, p = 0.0067). Depressive symptoms and them severity had a positive correlation with poor compliance. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms and its severity is associated with a higher interdialitytic weight gain and higher predialysis serum potassium in hemodialysis patients. Early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention might benefit these patients.