Psychiatric Evaluation of Children During the Organ Transplant Process

Organ transplantation is performed frequently in Turkey. A routine psychiatric examination is performed before all transplant procedures, and psychiatric support is continued during the posttransplant period. In this study, we reviewed the psychiatric consultation records of child and adolescent patients admitted to Başkent University Hospital who underwent or were scheduled to undergo transplant to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in this population.

Fifty-nine transplant patients were seen by the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry between 2012 and 2015 and were evaluated based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition.

Thirty patients (50.8%) were female, and 29 patients (49.2%) were male. The mean age of the study population was 10.2 ± 4.5 years, and the mean age at transplant was 9.9 ± 4.6 years. In total, 69.5% of participants were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. The most common diagnosis was adjustment disorder, with a prevalence of 52.4%.

Our study found that psychiatric disorders are frequently encountered in pediatric transplant patients. This study revealed a higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders during the posttransplant period than during the pretransplant period.