Psychosocial profile and psychiatric morbidity among Egyptian patients after living donor liver transplantation

Background Living donor liver transplantation is an effective line of therapy for patients with end-stage liver disease. While there are various psychiatric complications that affect donors, only a few studies investigated such complications among Egyptian living donors. Results The study showed psychiatric morbidity in 15% of donors, especially anxiety disorders and major depression. Donors had high mean scores on psychoticism, neuroticism, impulsivity, and extraversion subscales of the EPQ. Female gender, younger age group, low educational level, managerial work, being the sibs of the recipients, and obtaining high scores in the EPQ were found to be independent risk factors correlated with the development of psychiatric morbidity in liver donors. Conclusion The increased frequency of psychiatric morbidity among liver donors raises the need for thorough pre- and postoperative psychiatric assessment and monitoring. It is mandatory to investigate the donors’ personality traits preoperatively to assess the decision-making process for donation and postoperatively to plan appropriate protective and treatment programs.