Heart Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Heart Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Personality characteristics among cardiothoracic transplant recipients.

Stilley CS, Dew MA, Pilkonis P, Bender A, McNulty M, Christensen A, McCurry KR, Kormos RL

School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. css100@pitt.edu

Personality characteristics are clinically believed to predict posttransplant adherence and outcome; however, data, as to the prevalence and type of personality disorders (PDs) and distribution of personality traits among transplant (txp) populations, are sparse and inconclusive. This paper reports on the prevalence and type of PD and range of personality traits, according to the Five-Factor model, among 73 adult cardiothoracic txp recipients. It represents the first systematic assessment of PDs and traits in a sample of txp recipients. Personality disorders were assessed with a semistructured diagnostic interview; personality traits were assessed with a self-report instrument. Thirty-three percent of the sample met diagnostic criteria for a PD, approximately three times higher than prevalence of PD previously reported among nonpsychiatric populations. Mean values of personality traits for the sample were in the normative range but with wide variability; extreme values on four of the five traits were scored by subjects with a PD. This unexpectedly high prevalence of PD and the wide variability in traits among heart and lung recipients alert clinicians to consider personality characteristics when planning interventions to increase compliance and maximize quality of life after cardiothoracic transplantation.

Published 14 March 2005 in Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 27(2): 113-8.
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