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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1378594

Investigation of immunosuppressive treatment compliance, dyspnea, anxiety, and depression levels in lung transplant recipients: Online interview

Provisionally accepted
Semra Bulbuloglu Semra Bulbuloglu 1*Halil Ibrahim Sayim Halil Ibrahim Sayim 2
  • 1 Istanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 2 Istanbul Arel University, Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Following lung transplantation (LTx), it is important for recipients to comply with immunosuppressive treatment and cope with related problems. In the post-LTx period, the course of dyspnea and psychological problems it causes in case of progression are not known.Depression and anxiety may develop in recipients after LTx. However, the relationship between this situation and treatment compliance and dyspnea is uncertain.The aim of this study was to investigate dyspnea, anxiety, and depression levels of recipients following LTx and their immunosuppressive treatment compliance.The study was planned as a descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study. Data were collected on various social media platforms via an online interview, and 65 LTx recipients were included in the sample (n=65). A Participant Information Form, the Modified Borg Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Immunosuppressive Drug Compliance Scale were employed to collect data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test.The mean age of the participants was found to be 52.60±9.44 years, and 56.9% were male. Forty percent of the participants were dependent on oxygen support, and 32.2% had hypertension. Their dyspnea levels were mild, anxiety levels were moderate, depression levels were high, and immunosuppressive treatment compliance levels were slightly above-average.According to the correlation analysis results, dyspnea was associated with anxiety and depression (p<0.05). As depression increased, immunosuppressive treatment compliance decreased, and the correlation between the two variables was statistically significant (p<0.05).In this study, as the severity of dyspnea experienced by LTRs increased, the severity of their anxiety and depression also increased. Additionally, there was an inverse correlation between depression and immunosuppressive treatment compliance. LTRs demonstrated insufficient adherence to their immunosuppressive drug regimens, which is very significant in terms of graft survivability. These results suggest that LTRs should be closely monitored at home.

    Keywords: Anxiety, immunosuppressive treatment compliance, Depression, Dyspnea, Lung transplant recipients

    Received: 29 Jan 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bulbuloglu and Sayim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Semra Bulbuloglu, Istanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.