Psychiatric disorders and survival after lung transplantation

The 30 patients who underwent lung transplantation between 1990 and 1996 we re included in this study, and data were analyzed to find predictors of 1-y ear survival posttransplantation. All patients were followed throughout the posttransplantation period. Fifteen patients had a pretransplantation diag nosis of an anxiety and/or depressive disorders . Of the 30 patients transp lanted, 19 survived 12 months or more, and 11 died less than 12 months post transplantation. The >12-month survival group had a mean age of 45.2 years at transplantation, compared with a mean age of 43.0 years in the <12-month group (NS). The mean Psychosocial Assessment of Candidates for Transplant score and premorbid history! of smoking did not differ between the groups. The >12-month survival group had more psychiatric illness pretransplantatio n than the <12-month survival group (56% vs. 27%, P<0.05), The recipients w ith a psychiatric history (N=15) were more likely to survive 1 year posttra nsplantation than the recipients without a psychiatric history (80% vs. 47% , P<0.05) and were not significantly different from the recipients without a psychiatric history in terms of episodes of rejection, bronchiolitis obli terans, or noncompliance with treatment, Depression and anxiety ape treatab le disorders that occur frequently, in patients with end-stage lung disease , and a premorbid history of either did nor predict worse outcome posttrans plantation in this study of lung transplantation recipients.