title: Key Role of Social Supports in a Cardiac Transplant Treatment Team.
abstract: Only a limited literature focuses on solid organ transplant outcomes using an integrated care approach connecting the transplant team with psychiatry, other medical specialties, and importantly, the patient's social supports. We present the case of a man with heart failure whom we treated for symptoms of anxiety and depression both precardiac and postcardiac transplant. The patient was managed by a multidisciplinary team for his complex medical, psychiatric, family, and social issues. Most notably, the role and involvement of his primary caregiver at home changed during the crucial period between his pretransplant evaluation and clinical care during the year following his cardiac transplant. Unfortunately our patient succumbed to a poor outcome both socially and medically, dying 1 year posttransplant. Our experience with this patient led us to explore the cardiac transplant presurgical and postsurgical assessment and management process, focusing on the key role of social support in the patient care team.
authors.affiliation: BERRY: Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NYKYMISSIS: Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Obianuju O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: Carisa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kymissis
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012944:Social Support