Abstract

SOUSA, Vera Teixeira de; COSTA, Cassilda; REIS, Constança Hipólito  and  COELHO, Rui. Psychiatric aspects of heart and lung transplantation. Arq Med [online]. 2011, vol.25, n.5-6, pp.196-204. ISSN 2183-2447.

Solid organ transplantation has increased steadily in recent years, as well as the number of candidates. This treatment is reserved for terminal illness of the implicated organs and, therefore, performed in patients who already have high morbidity and mortality rates. The transplantation process is complex and entails huge risks and challenges for patients, which are obviously a great source of enormous distress for themselves and for their relatives. Supported on current evidence, the International Society of Transplantation recommends that candidates’ selection for a transplant list should include psychosocial criteria and stands for integration of Psychiatry in transplant teams as an important advantage to achieve favorable clinical endpoints. The psychiatrist’ role is, on the one hand, the identification and intervention in psychosocial factors that might somehow affect the outcome of transplant procedure and, secondly, to provide psychiatric care to transplanted patients. In this paper, the authors briefly review of the intervention areas of Psychiatry in solid organ transplantation, particularly, in heart and lung transplantation. recommendations are presented, but also the controversies and difficulties that arise in selection and psychosocial screening of candidates, pre-transplant care, as well as the identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders in the post-transplant period.

Keywords : organ transplantation; heart; lung; patient selection; psychiatry.

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