Optimism and coping styles: A comparison of candidates for liver transplantation with candidates for lung transplantation

Background: Dispositional optimism and adaptive coping styles have been sho wn to correlate with each other and with physical and psychological well-be ing in a number of studies with medical patients. Few studies in the transp lant literature evaluate psychological characteristics of patients across m edical diagnoses. A comparison of optimism and coping styles among candidat es for liver and lung transplantation is presented. Method: Subjects were 7 3 candidates for lung transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medic al Center and 76 candidates for liver transplantation at the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System. All candidates were classified according to medical diag nosis and history of substance abuse (alcohol/drugs or smoking). There were no significant between- or within-group differences on optimism. Results: There was a significant difference within both groups, according to history of substance abuse on the coping style 'acceptance'. There were also signi ficant between-group differences on a number of coping styles. Conclusions: This preliminary study is intended to suggest direction for future researc h; studying psychological variables known to impact on health apart from me dical diagnosis may provide data pertinent to selection criteria and the de sign of interventions to more effectively maximize the benefit of transplan tation for all concerned. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG, Basel.