Psychosomatic interactions in kidney transplantation: role of personality dimensions in mental health-related quality of life

Abstract

Background and aims: The increase in innovative and personalized medicine solutions in kidney surgery can improve patients’ chances of survival; however, during the transplantation process, patients are exposed to many psychological challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the role and impact of personality dimensions on the behaviour of waiting-list patients towards the post-surgery adaptation process. Method: The participants were 113 out-patients aged 18–70 years (mean age 54.7 years, SD ± 9.9) who had received a kidney transplant at least 3 years prior to the study. Results: The results of the study revealed that personality dimensions can predict mental health-related quality of life after kidney transplantation; in particular, the dimensions play an important role in patients’ behavioural ability to manage their quality of life both during end-stage renal disease and after kidney transplantation. Psychological distress and anxiety were associated with a low level of the conscientiousness dimension, while a high level of the openness dimension was associated with a high level of psychological distress and stress. In addition, body self-perception was associated with personality dimensions. Conclusion: Personality dimensions were found to predict behavioural reactions when emotional traits and body self-perception for each patient were combined; clinical psychologists could apply personalized intervention by modeling the treatments step by step and mitigating the negative effects of the whole kidney transplantation disease, thus helping the individual to adapt to a new life.

Chronic Kidney Disease and Its Relationship with Mental Health: Allostatic Load Perspective for Integrated Care

“…As expected, the findings of the present study demonstrated the impact of HD therapy in this chronic condition, confirming negative emotional signs such as anxiety, depression, stress, and psychological distress [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]; several researchers highlighted that HD patients were reported to have fewer functional coping strategies and had more mental health issues. Some authors highlighted the impact of personality traits on health management when dealing with high/low adherence and compliance to medical prescriptions [9][10][11][12][13]: positive traits can enhance the active care from the patients being engaged in their own health behavior.…”

“…When dealing with the side effects of HD, patients implement maladaptive coping strategies, and the consequence is decreased QoL [6,7]. Several studies have investigated the QoL pre-and post-kidney transplantation, showing high anxiety and depression levels in HD patients [8][9][10].…”

“…Lately, clinical practice and research interests have been focused on the interaction between individual and external aspects as factors affecting living and compromising the QoL in CKD therapy; personality dimensions proved to be predictive for adaptive behaviors [10]. Part of posttransplant nonadherence seems to be determined by personality.…”

Patient perspective in perceived comparative genetic mutation risk: An exploratory review

“…The complexity of clinical genetics from daily diagnostic and treatment practices to the everyday experience of those living with the risk of disease might be addressed in counselling settings to improve quality of life in genetic risk, increasing mental adaptation to tailored chronic conditions. 3,[58][59][60] Our findings highlight the need to enhance the clinical indices in genetic counselling to improve the patient-centred approach. Biological, psychological and social variables could impact the efficacy of health management and monitoring.…”

“…Regarding genetic counselling, it appears fundamental to understand the risk related to one's own disease factors, such as the management of healthy/unhealthy behaviours related to perceived risk, family history, personal relationships, lifestyle and compliance with medical recommendations for relevant indexes to analyse the genetic impact. The complexity of clinical genetics from daily diagnostic and treatment practices to the everyday experience of those living with the risk of disease might be addressed in counselling settings to improve quality of life in genetic risk, increasing mental adaptation to tailored chronic conditions 3,58–60 …”