Source
Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Abstract
In this study, the authors describe the psychological characteristics of a large sample (N = 407) of adult patients evaluated for liver transplantation, and provide normative data on commonly used measures of cognitive functioning, affective status, psychosocial adjustment, coping, quality of life, and life satisfaction. The normative data suggest that the study's liver transplant candidates have poorer cognitive functioning and health-related quality of life when compared with available normative comparison groups, yet the former group is more comparable to medically ill peers on measures of anxiety, depression, psychosocial adjustment, and coping. Data also suggest a high rate of affective disturbance in liver transplant candidates. Results indicate the utility of normative data, such as the authors', for providing an appropriate comparison group for liver pretransplant candidates.