Psychosocial profiles after transplantation: a 24-month follow-up of heart, lung, liver, kidney and allogeneic bone-marrow patients.
OBJECTIVE
Quality of life and psychosocial well-being usually improve after an organ transplant and remain stable for a minimum of several years. These findings, however, mainly apply to the "average" trend for transplant patients. This study aims to investigate whether transplant patients fall into different groups in good or poor psychosocial outcome after organ transplantation.


METHODS
One hundred thirty-one patients were assessed before and 6, 12, and 24 months after a heart, lung, liver, kidney, or bone-marrow transplant. Cluster analysis was applied to identify typical outcome profiles of the patients' mental health (SF-36); differences between the clusters were investigated with regard to further psychosocial parameters (sense of coherence, optimism, psychosocial functioning, anxiety, depression, life/health satisfaction, medication experience).


RESULTS
The analysis revealed two clusters of transplant patients. Cluster A (n=78, 59.5%) showed a fairly good psychosocial outcome, improving over the posttransplant period of 2 years. Cluster B (n=53, 40.5%) included patients who reported a limited or poor outcome, deteriorating after the transplant. Furthermore, there are significant differences between clusters A and B in psychosocial parameters and physical functioning.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that the experience of the transplant process may vary greatly from patient to patient, and that a considerable number of transplant recipients require psychosocial support, despite the majority of patients showing an unquestionable posttransplant improvement in psychosocial well-being.
Goetzmann
Lutz
L
Department of Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. lutz.goetzmann@usz.ch
Ruegg
Linda
L
Stamm
Martina
M
Ambühl
Patrice
P
Boehler
Annette
A
Halter
Jörg
J
Muellhaupt
Beat
B
Noll
Georg
G
Schanz
Urs
U
Wagner-Huber
Regula
R
Spindler
Anja
A
Buddeberg
Claus
C
Klaghofer
Richard
R
D001290:Attitude; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D016040:Lung Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D008603:Mental Health; D018579:Patient Selection; D011788:Quality of Life; D012917:Social Adjustment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000523:psychology