Quality of life, depression, and coping in patients awaiting heart transplantation

From a medical perspective, heart transplantation is now an established pro cedure for the treatment of patients with terminal heart failure. For the p atient involved, it presents itself as a situation of great psychological d istress, particularly during the waiting period. In the last few years, thi s situation has grown worse due to the decline in the number of donor organ s and the resulting longer waiting period. The aim of this study was to sys tematically evaluate this phase of the transplantation procedure in a follo w-up study. 52 patients could be assessed in follow-up. Although the patien ts had already differed from the healthy control group in the areas of depr ession, quality of life, and physical complaints (p < 0.001) at the beginni ng of the study, there was a significant increase of depression and a furth er decline in the reported quality of life in the course of the study. The patients presented themselves as having a low internal and a significantly increased external and fatalistic locus of control. The study stresses the necessity for supportive psychotherapeutic therapy in these patients.