THE FUTURE OF ORGAN TRANSPLANT PSYCHIATRY

The future of organ transplant psychiatry depends less on immunologic and surgical advances than on 1) an increase supply of donor organs, 2 ) more sophisticated multicerter outcome studies, and 3) understanding of the subjective as well as objective aspects of compliance and qual ity of life for transplant recipients. From future studies, we may imp rove the selection process for candidates and discover which approache s are optimal for anxiety, depressive, organic mental, and personality disorders. Absolute contraindications to transplantation may become r elative. Integration of ethical concerns with biomedical and psychosoc ial criteria for selection will challenge future investigators given t he inadequate supply of donor organs.