Exploring the Level of Post Traumatic Growth in Kidney Transplant Recipients via Network Analysis

Abstract

Although kidney transplant can lead to psychiatric disorders, psychosocial syndromes and demoralization, a positive post-traumatic growth (PTG) can occur in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). However, the PTG-Inventory (PTGI), a reliable tool to measure PTG is scarcely used to explore the effect of this stressful event in KTRs. Thus, the purpose of our study was to assess the level of PTG and its correlation with demoralization, physical and emotional symptoms or problems via network analysis in KTRs. Additionally, we aimed at exploring the association of PTG with psychiatric diagnoses, Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) conditions, and medical variables. A total of 134 KTRs were tested using MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview 6.0 (MINI 6.0), DCPR interview, PTGI, Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), Canadian Problem Checklist (CPC) and Demoralization scale (DS-IT). PTGI was used to investigate the positive psychological experience of patients after KT. It consists of 21 items divided in five factors. Routine biochemistry, immunosuppressive agents, socio-demographic and clinical data were collected. A symptom network analysis was conducted among PTGI, ESAS and DS-IT. Mean score of PTGI total of sample was 52.81 ± 19.81 with higher scores in women (58.53 ± 21.57) than in men (50.04 ± 18.39) (p < 0.05). PTGI-Relating to Others (16.50 ± 7.99) sub-score was markedly higher than other PTGI factor sub-scores. KTRs with DCPR-alexithymia or International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) anxiety disorders diagnosis had lower PTGI total score and higher PTGI-Personal Strength sub-score, respectively (p < 0.05). The network analysis identified two communities: PTGI and ESAS with DS-IT. DS-IT Disheartenment, DS-IT Hopelessness and PTGI Relating to Others were the most central items in the network. After 1000 bootstrap procedures, the Exploratory graph analysis revealed the presence of a median of two communities in the network in 97.5% of the bootstrap iterations. A more extensive use of PTGI should be encouraged to identify and enhance the positive psychological changes after KT.

The effect of post-traumatic growth on recovery in liver transplant recipients

“…Liver transplant recipients who have living donor liver transplantation generally feel deep gratitude toward the organ donor, and the intimacy with the donor ties recipients more tightly to living by convincing them that they are really loved by the people around them, and also, this intimacy will reinforce recipients’ social support perceptions ( 26 , 27 ). In previous studies, it was identified that kidney patients who had living donor kidney transplantation had higher levels of post-traumatic growth than those who had cadaveric donor kidney transplantation ( 28 , 29 ). In our study, liver transplant recipients with living donor had higher post-traumatic growth.…”

Dynamic structure of posttraumatic growth among victims of the 2021 Henan floods: A 6‐month, three‐wave longitudinal study

“…Previous studies have employed the network analysis approach to investigate the cross‐sectional relationships between items of PTG (Adamkovič et al, 2022; Baník et al, 2022; Battaglia et al, 2021; Bellet et al, 2018; Ma et al, 2022; Peters et al, 2021; Steinberg et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). For instance, significant positive correlations have been found between “priority change” and “appreciation of life,” “new interest” and “new path” (Baník et al, 2022), “closeness” and “valuing others” (Peters et al, 2021), “spirituality” and “faith” (Baník et al, 2022; Peters et al, 2021), and “handle difficulties” and “do better things” (Ma et al, 2022; Peters et al, 2021).…”

Progress and Recent Advances in Solid Organ Transplantation

“…In addition to progress in desensitization and preoperative monitoring of donor-specific antibodies, this Special Issue also provided insights into the monitoring and management of chronic active antibody-mediated rejection [17]. Furthermore, investigators also shed light on post-transplant complication research, including osteoporotic fractures [9], diarrhea [15], psychological changes [19], and recurrent primary disease [17].…”

“…In this Special Issue, "Progress and Recent Advances in Solid Organ Transplantation", researchers from different disciplines with different expertise and resources highlighted the novelty of their recent investigations in the field of organ transplantation, including issues related to donors, allografts, and patient survival [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. While there have been significant advances in regional and national kidney paired-donation programs in matching incompatible pairs, data suggest that there may be a role for desensitization in select cases to facilitate organ transplantation [21].…”