THE EFFECTS OF BEREAVEMENT ON ADULT SIBLING BONE-MARROW DONORS PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND REACTIONS TO DONATION

As living organ, tissue, and bone marrow donation become increasingly prevalent treatments for a variety of diseases, better understanding o f living donors' experiences, especially when the recipient does not s urvive after the transplant, also becomes more critical, Although some psychological outcome data exist concerning living donation, there ha ve been no systematic prospective investigations, to date, of the psyc hological impact of bereavement among sibling bone marrow donors, Stud ies of bereavement effects in other donation settings such as unrelate d bone marrow donation and related kidney donation, suggest that berea vement may have a significant impact on donors' reactions, The present investigation studied a panel of sibling bone marrow donors at three key points in the donation process in order to (1) examine donor psych ological well-being across time, and (2) investigate the effect of the sibling recipient's death on donor well-being, We surveyed sibling do nors by mail 1-2 weeks prior to donation, 1-2 weeks following donation , and again 1 year after their donation, In general, all donors report ed high levels of predonation self-esteem, mastery, happiness and life satisfaction, As might be expected, bereaved donors felt less as if t heir donation had really helped their sibling as time passed, However, despite such donation-specific perceptions, bereaved donors experienc ed global psychological gains following bereavement including enhanced self-esteem, happiness, and life satisfaction compared to donors whos e siblings were still living. These findings suggest that physicians a nd mental health practitioners should monitor donors' psychological we ll-being for extended periods postdonation, and should consider clinic al interventions for bereaved and nonbereaved sibling donors.