Psychological well-being in liver transplant patients

To explore any changes made to an individual’s frame of reference for self-evaluation of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and to identify any factors that were associated with this change. One-to-one interviews were conducted with 18 patients with End-Stage Liver Disease (ESLD); 9 of these participants were interviewed again at 1 month, 3 months and 9 months post liver transplant. Thematic analysis produced 5 themes across time: impact of liver disease/ transplant on patients’ life, emotional reaction to liver disease/ transplant, methods of coping with liver disease/ transplant, support of others and perception of the future. <br><br><br>Quantitative analyses indicated an improvement in HRQoL from pre-transplant to 3 months post-transplant.

High levels of anxiety were evident at 1-month post-surgery whilst depression decreased over time. Optimism scores increased from pre-transplant to 9 months post-surgery. Response shift effects were observed at all post-transplant time-points with patients rating their HRQoL significantly lower (on average) in retrospect than they did at pre-transplant.

The largest response shift occurred at 3 months post-transplant. The occurrence of response shift in HRQoL ratings over time for this population could have implications for the estimation of the effectiveness of liver transplant surgery.<br>