Psychological Assessment Instruments for Use in Liver and Kidney Transplant Evaluations: Scarcity of Evidence and Recommendations

Abstract

Psychopathology among liver and kidney transplant patients is prevalent. Although pre-surgical psychological evaluations are routinely conducted, understanding which specific psychological test to use is under-developed. The purpose of this review is to examine the psychometric properties of broadband and narrowband psychological measures in pre-surgical liver and kidney transplant evaluations. Overall, there is a paucity of research in this domain that hamper abilities to make clear recommendations on what to use alongside a clinical interview. This review highlights the need for additional research examining instruments that may predict patients’ successful recovery from transplant surgery. Despite the scarcity of research, instruments that appear to be useful in this population include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (MMPI-2), the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT), and the Transplant Evaluation and Rating Scale (TERS).