Auswirkungen depressiver Symptome auf die gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität, die sexuelle Zufriedenheit und die kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit bei Patienten nach orthotoper Lebertransplantation

Abstract

Our cross-sectional study aimed to explore the existence of depressive symptoms among orthotopic liver transplantation recipients and to investigate how depressive symptoms are linked to health-related quality of life, sexual satisfaction and cognitive performance. We recruited 76 liver transplantation recipients. All patients were treated at the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation Surgery, University of Medicine of Graz, Graz, Austria. The psychometric observer-rating scale Hamilton Depression Scale was administered to evaluate depressive symptoms. Cognitive performance was based on the SKT. The data on health-related quality of life were obtained from the SF-36 and the data on sexual satisfaction were obtained from the FLZ. After the orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) 53,9% (n = 41) of the sample suffered from depressive symptoms. Impaired sexual functioning and impaired cognitive performance are a common feature in liver transplantation recipients with depressive symptoms. In the sample of patients suffering from depressive symptoms significant impairments in health-related quality of life were found in all SF-36 domains. Liver transplantation recipients may face a major risk of liver transplantation-related depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms are highly associated with impairments in quality of life, sexual satisfaction and cognitive performance.