Coping with heart transplantation: a challenge for liaison psychiatry

Heart transplantation confronts the patient with major physical, psychological and social demands, both before and after the operation. Psychological adjustment with these stressors requires effective coping abilities. In most cardiac transplant units, a liaison psychiatrist or a psychologist is associated to the cardiosurgery team, in order to provide the medical team with assistance in the selection of candidates and to help patients to cope with the adaptive tasks they are faced with during the transplantation process. Many questions about the process of coping with heart transplantation remain unanswered. This article, based upon the literature review and the author's clinical experience, focuses on some critical issues regarding assessment and clinical usefulness of coping mechanisms in cardiac transplantation.