[Coping in patients after liver transplantation with regard to their membership in a self-group]

Within the past 15 years, liver transplantation has proven itself to be the treatment of choice among patients with terminal liver disease. The one-year survival rate is about 80 %; after 8 years 61 % of the patients are still alive. The present study investigates the influence of active or depressive coping on the physical and mental quality of life in two different groups of patients after liver transplantation.

Members (n = 65) and non-members (n = 20) of a German self-help group were asked to fill out a postal survey. Patients were included if their liver transplantation was conducted 6 to 36 months ago. The health-related quality of life was surveyed using the SF-36 and coping strategies were investigated with the Freiburg questionnaire on coping with illness.

All patients had a good physical and mental quality of life compared with a German normative sample. Members of the self-help group showed substantially higher active coping with illness (p < 0.0001), but only depressive coping correlates (negatively) with physical as well as with mental health-related quality of life (r between -0.24 and -0.68). This was true for both groups investigated.

Based on an overall good health-related quality of life, depressive coping as well as aspects of the social environment contribute considerably in determining the well-being and quality of life in patients after liver transplantation.