Psychological Issues in Lung Transplant Recipients

Research Objectives: To investigate mental health of the recipients before and after lung transplantation is the aim of this study.

Design: This study was case control study.

Setting: This study was conducted on patients who visited a university hospital.

Participants: Between January and June 2019, data was collected from 27 (14 men, 13 women; mean age 56.19 years) lung transplant candidates and 19 (11 men, 8 women; mean age 58.79 years) lung transplant recipients.

Interventions: The tests were compared for patients pre-lung transplantation and patients post-lung transplantation. Korean-Beck Depression Inventory-II (K-BDI-II), Korean-Beck Anxiety Inventory (K-BAI), and Korean-Beck Hopelessness Scale (K-BHS) were assessed for psychological functioning, and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) for a general quality of life measure.

Main Outcome Measures: Pre-transplantation group and the post-transplantation group were comparatively analyzed using frequency analysis, t-tests, and ANOVA (SPSS Statics ver. 21).

Results: There was a significant difference in K-BAI total score between two groups. In the post-transplantation group, anxiety was lower than the pre-transplantation group (p < 0.05) and mood was less depressive than the pre-transplantation group (p < 0.1). There were statistically significant differences in the subscales in SF-36 compared to the pre-transplantation group. The post-transplantation group showed a higher QOL in physical functioning (p < 0.01), role limitation due to physical health (p < 0.01), energy (p < 0.001), emotional well-being (p < 0.05), social functioning (p < 0.05), pain (p < 0.05), and general health (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Lung transplant recipients reported a highly satisfying quality of life in terms of physical function, energy, emotional well-being, and social functioning. They also reported lower level of anxiety and depression than the pre-transplantation group. However, most of them are more depressed, more hopeless, and have a lower QOL state than the published normal population. In hospital setting, psychosocial interventions with physical rehabilitation are expected to help adaptation after lung transplantation.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors declare no conflict of interest.