Psychiatric Aspects of Organ Transplantation

Abstract

DURING the past 30 years, organ transplantation has moved from being an experimental procedure to an accepted treatment for several disorders. This review discusses the most common psychiatric complications as well as psychological benefits that children, adolescents, and adult transplantation patients and their families experience. Preoperative psychiatric evaluation; psychiatric aspects of living, related, and brain-dead donors; and the support provided by the transplantation unit staff are also discussed. During the early 1950s, Hume1performed several cadaveric renal transplantations, but it was not until 1954, when Murray and colleagues2,3successfully transplanted a kidney from one identical twin brother to the other that long-term success in transplantation began to be achieved. In the 30 years since that pioneering work, long-term survival has significantly increased. This has been largely due to the increased experience of surgeons, refinement of surgical technique, improvements in tissue typing and matching, more careful selection of candidates,