Assessing Psychosocial Vulnerability and Care Needs of Pretransplant Patients by Means of the INTERMED

Gundula Ludwig, Perdita Dobe-Tauchert, Barbara Nonnast-Daniel, Friedrich Stiefel, Peter de Jonge, Elena Lobo, Rainer Richter, Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Werner Hohenberger, Michael Weyand, Wolfgang Soellner*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: We investigated whether the INTERMED, a generic instrument for assessing biopsychosocial case complexity and direct care, identifies organ transplant patients at risk of unfavourable post-transplant development by comparing it to the Transplant Evaluation Rating Scale (TERS), the established measure for pretransplant psychosocial evaluation.

Method: One hundred nineteen kidney, liver, and heart transplant candidates were evaluated using the INTERMED, TERS, SF-36, EuroQol, Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and Hospital Anxiety 8( Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: We found significant relationships between the INTERMED and the TERS scores. The INTERMED highly correlated with the HADS, MADRS, and mental and physical health scores of the SF-36 Health Survey.

Conclusions: The results demonstrate the validity and usefulness of the INTERMED instrument for pretransplant evaluation. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate the different qualities of INTERMED and TERS in clinical practice. The advantages of the psychiatric focus of the TERS and the biopsychosocial perspective of the INTERMED are discussed in the context of current literature on integrated care.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)190-203
Number of pages14
JournalZeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie
Volume60
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Organ Transplantation
  • Screening
  • Psychiatric Comorbidity
  • Psychosocial Risks
  • Complexity
  • Care Needs
  • INTERMED
  • TERS
  • ORGAN TRANSPLANT CANDIDATES
  • EVALUATION RATING-SCALE
  • HEALTH-SERVICE NEEDS
  • QUALITY-OF-LIFE
  • CASE COMPLEXITY
  • DEPRESSION SCALE
  • HOSPITAL ANXIETY
  • RELIABILITY
  • SELECTION
  • PROJECT

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