Background and objectives: Only few comparative prospective studies have been published on psychosocial issues of organ transplant. This study investigated patient groups with various organ transplants with respect to their quality of life and psychosocial situation before and after surgery.
Methods: 76 patients receiving an organ transplant (lung n = 22, liver n = 26, allogeneic bone marrow n = 28) were investigated with regard to quality of life (SF-36), life satisfaction (FLZ), social support (F-SozU), and psychological symptoms (HADS-D) before (T0) as well as six (T1) and twelve (T2) months after transplant.
Results: In the pre-transplant period the values of the psychosocial variables were partly lower than those of the community normal sample. After transplant lung and bone marrow patients reported less anxiety and depression and a higher life satisfaction, and liver patients reported less depression, compared to the norms. Quality of life, life satisfaction and psychological symptoms of all patients improved significantly post-transplant, whereas the perceived social support decreased. Contrary to the other groups, the psychological well-being of liver transplant recipients was deteriorating between T1 and T2.
Conclusions: An organ transplant improved the patients' quality of life and psychosocial situation to a great extent. This effect was better in lung and bone marrow than in liver transplant patients.