Influences of some medical and psychosocial variables of the transplant patients'psychological recovery. Future lines of psychological intervention

Abstract

In the present investigation we analyze the influence that some medical (type of transplanted organ and hospitalization) and psychosocial variables (period from the implant, expectations toward the illness and type of family relationships from the transplant) exercises in the psychological recovery (anxiety, depression, type of thoughts, physical self-concept and coping behaviors) of the transplant patients. To achieve these objectives we use a sample composed of 100 transplant patients: 59 of kidney, 23 of liver and 18 of heart. All of them filled a psychosocial questionnaire (sociodemographics data, medicals data, etc) and a battery of psychological instruments: state-trait anxiety inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch y Lushene, 1982), Beck's depression inventory (Beck, Brown, Eidelson, Steer y Riskind, 1987), physical self-concept scale (Garanto, 1984) and coping behaviors questionnaire (Muñoz, 1988). After analyzing the results we find on one hand that the type of transplanted organ and the time of hospitalization after the transplant don't exercise an important influence in the psychological recovery of the transplant patients and, on the other hand that the psychological disorders of these patients increase when they enter in the hospital due to some medical complication after the heart implant (heart transplant patients), during first year (0-12 months) and from two years (>24 months) of having received the renal implant (kidney transplant patients), they have some negative expectations toward their illness and when their family relationships are worse after the transplant. From these results, we propose some strategies of psychological intervention in the order to favour an appropriate psychological evolution in the transplant patients.