The relevance of anxiety, depression, and coping in patients after liver transplantation

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of anxiety, depression, and coping on quality of life in patients after liver transplantation. Patients were asked to fill out a postal survey. Two hundred thirty-six of 375 patients (63%) who entered the study returned the questionnaires, and 186 of these patients could be included in the assessment. Anxiety and depression were surveyed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; health-related quality of life, using the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, and coping strategies, using the Freiburg Questionnaire on Coping With Illness. In terms of physical and mental dimensions of health-related quality of life, psychosocial factors are far more relevant in liver transplant recipients than purely somatic factors, such as the number of posttransplantation complications or length of hospital stay. Through multiple regression analysis, we were able to account for 51% of the variance in the physical dimension of health-related quality of life and 58% of the variance in the mental dimension. Physical factors of depression, age, and employment and mental factors of anxiety and depression were significant for predicting health-related quality of life after liver transplantation. Depressive coping, anxiety, and depression, as well as aspects of the social environment, contribute considerably to determine well-being and health-related quality of life of patients after liver transplantation.