KIDNEY-TRANSPLANTATION AND LIAISON PSYCHIATRY .1. ANXIETY BEFORE, ANDTHE PREVALENCE RATE OF PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS BEFORE AND AFTER, TRANSPLANTATION

We examined psychiatric problems before and after kidney transplantati on in a sample of 36 patients with end-stage renal failure. The preval ence rate of psychiatric disorders was 11.1% (4 of 36 cases) before th e transplantation and 36.1% (13 of 36 cases) within 2 months after the transplantation. Except for a patient with schizophrenic disorder, no patients were found to have a psychiatric disorder from 2 to 6 months after the transplantation. In this study, we also examined anxieties and/or conflicts related to the transplantation using the synthetic ho use-tree-person (HTP) drawing test, a measure of mood states by means of a non-verbal expression method. The upper part of the tree trunk wa s not drawn in 25% of this sample (5 of 20 cases). In the HTP drawing tests immediately after the transplantation, however, trees missing th e upper part of trunk were not drawn. Based on these findings, we disc ussed psychiatric problems in kidney transplantation.