New center focuses on organ transplant patients’ behavioral health

Providing patients on organ transplant waiting lists with information on how to deal with daily fear and anxiety is one goal of the University of Florida’s newly established Center for Behavioral Health Research in Organ Transplantation and Donation.

Located within the UF College of Health Professions’ clinical and health psychology department, the Center for Behavioral Health Research in Organ Transplantation and Donation seeks to promote positive health outcomes among transplant patients and their families while facilitating collaborative research among health professionals in UF’s organ transplant and donor programs.

James Rodrigue, Ph.D., associate professor, clinical and health psychology, directs the center.

“The center is a pioneer at the national level with its comprehensive program that addresses both the medical and psychological components involved in the often-lengthy transplant process,” Rodrigue said.

“The center gives us a chance to highlight the research being done in behavioral health and organ transplantation at UF,” said Rodrigue, who also is the director of psychological services for all of UF’s transplant programs. “We’ll then translate this research into useful information for transplant patients.”

Shands at UF Transplant Center is ranked 11th among the nation’s busiest organ transplant programs, providing kidney, pancreas, liver, heart, lung, and bone marrow transplants. Shands transplant teams performed 300 organ transplants in 2001.

Organ transplant recipients and their families may experience a variety of emotions before and after transplant.

Before surgery, patients deal with the uncertainty, fear and anxiety of living with a debilitating illness. Once they are placed on an organ waiting list, patients must cope with the fact that they won’t know when a potentially lifesaving organ will be available. They may wait months or even years for a transplant.

After transplantation, recipients face issues of quality of life, compliance with strict medical regimens, medication side effects, changes in roles within the family and financial worries associated with the high cost of a transplant, all of which can contribute to stress, depression and anxiety.

Rodrigue and his team meet with most UF patients as part of their transplant evaluation. The purpose of the psychological assessment is to identify behavioral health issues that can potentially impact health outcomes. Rodrigue’s team provides psychological care or a referral, if necessary, to help patients and their families adjust to the transplant process.

The center’s new Web site (www.transplantpsychologist.com) provides patients, families and health-care providers with further advice on how to manage these difficult aspects of transplantation.

Additionally, Rodrigue hopes to publish a book series for patients that will guide them through the psychological challenges of the entire transplantation experience.

“The center and Web site will serve as a mechanism to increase new referrals for transplantation, expand services of living donor programs and enhance compliance behaviors through lifestyle modifications,” said Ian Jamieson, manager of the Shands at UF Transplant Center and a member of the new center’s internal advisory board.

The new center encourages multidisciplinary research on the behavioral health of transplant recipients and the sharing of information across transplant programs. To meet those goals, Rodrigue hopes to offer small research grants and create an online newsletter for transplant team members to highlight relevant research.

More than 79,000 Americans are on the waiting list for an organ transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. To promote organ donation, the center plans to establish a network throughout Florida of transplant recipients and donor families who can speak to local groups about the importance of organ donation.