Completed Research Project

Title / Titel
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Mental representations of self, body, and significant others after lung transplantation and its influence on compliance
Summary / Zusammenfassung
In transplantation medicine, compliance is one of the crucial problems impairing outcome after an organ transplantation. About 20 % of the patients show non-compliance of the immunosuppressants. Unfortunately, non-compliance is difficult to predict, and the reasons for non-compliance behaviour are often unknown.
In the present study, 20 patients after lung-transplantation were interviewed about their thoughts and feelings regarding self, lung, donor and actual medical staff. Global compliance was assessed by attending medical doctors. Qualitative data-analysis was done by identifying different categories and attributes, supported by the software-program atlas/ti. The mental representations of high, middle and low compliant patients were compared and typical patterns of the compliance-groups identified.
Results: High compliant patients report more personal profit by transplantation than low compliant patients; e.g. they experience a growth of self-competence and autonomy after lung transplantation. In contrast, most of the low compliant patients report a loss of self-competence. In the middle and low compliance group patients report more distance to the transplanted lung than in the high compliance group. Otherwise, some patients with middle and low compliance report a very close relationship to the donor, adopting for example some of the donor´s personal traits. Furthermore, the relationship to the medical staff in the low compliance group is more complex and difficult. These patients, for example, report less emotional nearness, but more needs both for personal support and autonomy than high compliant patients.
In our opinion, the feeling of a personal profit by transplantation is crucial to the actual compliance behaviour. Probably, the experience of this profit take place in the context of a good doctor-patient-relationship. Emotional distance to the lung and an extraordinary close relationship to the donor, both could be interpreted as a default in the psychological processing of transplantation; this default may be a further risk factor for non-compliance.
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Publications / Publikationen
Götzmann, L., Moser, K. S., Vetsch, E., Klaghofer, R., Boehler, A., & Buddeberg, C. (submitted). Personality and mental models - a correlative study on the relation of 'Big Five' personality factors and metaphorical language after lung transplantation.

Götzmann, L., Moser, K. S., Vetsch, E., Naef, R., Russi, E., Buddeberg, C., & Boehler, A. (submitted). What do patients think after lung-transplantation? A quantitative analysis of explicit and metaphorical data. Psychosomatics.

Götzmann, L., Moser, K. S., Vetsch, E., Naef, R., Russi, E., Buddeberg, C., & Boehler, A. (submitted). Mental representations of self, body and significant others after lung transplantation - a grounded theory oriented approach to compliance. Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy.

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Keywords / Suchbegriffe
lung transplantation, compliance, mental models, big five personality factors, health/illness perception, metaphor analysis
Project Leadership and Contacts /
Projektleitung und Kontakte
Dr. K. S. Moser (Project Leader)kmoser@sozpsy.uzh.ch
Dr. L. Götzmann (Project Leader)lutz.goetzmann@psy.usz.ch
Prof. Dr. C. Buddebergclaus.buddeberg@psy.usz.ch
In Collaboration with /
In Zusammenarbeit mit
University Hospital ZurichSwitzerland
Duration of Project / Projektdauer
Jan 2001 to Dec 2003

© Universität Zürich, 19. September 2006, Impressum