Psychiatric disorders and outcome following cardiac transplantation

Psychosocial factors are frequently included in determining candidacy for cardiac transplantation. Although there are some data demonstrating a link between preoperative psychosocial status and postoperative outcome, a definitive answer has yet to be reached.

We studied 107 consecutive patients, transplanted from January 1990 to September 1991, with a retrospective review of pretransplant psychiatric evaluations to define a DSM III-R Axis I diagnosis. The medical outcome data included 1-year survival, rehospitalizations, infections, and rejection episodes, gathered from the transplant database.

There were no discernable differences between the groups with (n = 25) and without (n = 82) a DSM III-R Axis I psychiatric disorder prior to transplant in the evaluation of demographic data and medical outcome variables.

These data demonstrate that individuals with a history of psychiatric disorder who are carefully selected for compliance with medical care display no inherent difference from individuals without psychiatric disorder in medical outcome and survival at 1 year after cardiac transplantation.