Psychosocial And Financial Consequences Of Living Donation

Psychosocial effects during post-kidney donations involve specific responses to the donation experience. These effects include the positive feelings and also negative feelings such as regret. The regrets after donating the kidney consist of the health-related worries about the physical changes and health, as well as the social aspect with the kidney transplant recipient, their families and friends. In the research “Managing the Psychosocial and Financial Consequences of Living Donation” by Mary Amanda Dew, Larissa Myaskovsky, Jennifer L. Stee, and lAndrea F. DiMartini shown that on average the kidney donors reported having positive feelings about the experience both prior to the transplant and post-transplant. However, many living kidney
donors have face with the psychosocial problems post-donations. According to the study “elevated psychological distress and/or diagnosable psychiatric disorders have been documented in about one in every four living donors, including incident cases in individuals with no pre-donation history of disorder.” (Dew, 2014) Post-transplant psychological effects can be the results of the inability of the person to cope with the stress, including the hospitalization, surgery, and invasive treatments, which can be encoded in a distorted way and frightened experience (Pasquale, 2014). It can also be the depressive symptoms after donation. A research titled “Emotional Well-Being of Living Kidney Donors: Findings From the RELIVE Study” discovered that the post-donation stressors, including surgery and postoperative pain, need for opiate pain medications, social disruption, time off work with potential financial strain. Moreover, in the case of both donor and recipient to rely on the same family members to take care of them during the recovery time postoperative, the donor may not get the care and support as much as the recipient. The research also shown that in addition to the factors mentioned kidney donors may experience short-term mood changes after kidney donation (Jowsey, 2014).