*EMBARGOED All research presented at the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG2017 is strictly embargoed until Monday, October 16, 2017, at 8:00 am EDT.
Poster 1408 Impact of Psychiatric Disorders on Clinical Outcomes After Liver Transplantation
Author Insight from Neil Bhogal, MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center
What’s new here and important for clinicians?
There are few studies regarding the impact of psychiatric disease on outcomes after liver transplant and, thus, there are no standardized guidelines for screening or treatment prior to listing for transplantation. Our study reports on patients that underwent liver transplant during a five-year period and compared several outcomes between patients with and without known psychiatric disease prior to transplantation. We found that 9% more patients with evidence of psychiatric disease had psychosocial decompensation after transplant than patients without psychiatric disorders, and this was defined as requirement of new psychiatric medication or expert consultation. Interestingly, there was no difference in outcomes in patients that received treatment for their psychiatric conditions. We believe that further prospective and potentially multi-center work is warranted on this subject to better evaluate this high-risk population.
What do patients need to know?
Foremost, patients should be counseled that having a psychiatric disorder prior to transplant is not a contraindication for the procedure but is associated with higher risk of decompensation of their psychiatric disease, even if it was stable prior to their evaluation. However, they should also be aware that in this study we did not find any difference in mortality or several other secondary outcomes in organ transplantation.
Author Contact
Neil Bhogal, MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center
neil.bhogal@unmc.edu
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