Transplant Psychiatry SIG

On this page…
• Listserv & How to Join
• Activities
• Bibliography
• Items of Interest
• Related Organizations

Welcome to our SIG. We are psychiatrists and clinicians involved in issues of organ transplantation. We consult with patients, their families and donors, and their physicians. We meet in person each year at the ACLP Annual Meeting in November. At other times we communicate via a listserv and we hold online meetings. Over 150 professionals are members of ACLP’s Transplant Psychiatry SIG.

2020-2023

SIG Chair: Yelizaveta Sher, MD, FACLP
SIG Vice chair: G. Scott Winder MD

Immediate past chair: Paula Zimbrean, MD, FACLP, FAPA.

Transplant Psychiatry Listserv

The primary means of communication among members of the Transplant Psychiatry SIG is via listserv. Only members of the SIG may post and receive group messages, as well as view the archived postings. The link to the listserv archives is provided only to SIG subscribers via a link in the footer of all listserv emails. The archives are password protected for subscriber access. To register for access, on the archives access page, click Register Password, enter your SIG email, and then a password of your choosing. The email you provide to register for archives access must match exactly with the email used for your SIG subscription or the archives won’t permit you access.

ACLP Members: To join our SIG, you simply need to update your ACLP membership profile: under “Your Special Interest Group Subscriptions” toward the bottom of your profile page, check the “Transplant Psychiatry” box. Allow 24 hours for your membership to take effect.

If you are not a member of the Academy, submit the online form to join the SIG. Because the issues discussed in the Transplant Psychiatry SIG are intended for professionals who are involved or interested in transplantation, filling out the form does not automatically add you to the SIG. The SIG moderator will review your information and review/approve your membership. If you are a current SIG subscriber and wish to change your email, contact the Academy office at info@clpsychiatry.org for assistance.

We encourage all of our SIG members to also become a member of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. The Academy is an important resource that serves as an inspiration, a chance for networking, and a place to learn. Membership has many other advantages including a subscription to the Academy’s journal, Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (previously known as Psychosomatics). For more information, see Join ACLP.

SIG Activities

bulletSIG working groups. Our SIG has several working groups who meet or communicate regularly to create various academic products (conference submissions, educational materials and others). A survey is sent every year in early January to invite people to join existing groups or propose new topics. If you want to get involved but missed the survey, please contact the group lead and/or Paula Zimbrean, paula.zimbrean@yale.edu.

2023 Transplant Psychiatry SIG working groups (if you are interested in joining, please contact the leader directly; their contact information can be found in the ACLP directory)

bulletAcademy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (clpsychiatry.org)  (quarterly journal article annotations)

bulletTransplant Psychiatry education: materials that may be helpful in teaching trainees and non-psychiatric clinicians ( more coming soon)

ACLP Transplant Psychiatry Bibliography


Of Interest to Transplant Psychiatrists

bulletTransplant Psychiatry: A Case-Based Approach to Clinical Challenges | SpringerLink

Foreword by James Levenson, MD: “ This book marks the maturation of a subspecialty within consultation-liaison psychiatry and health psychology devoted to the psychiatric and psychological aspects of organ transplantatio[…]Expertise in the feld grew with the creation of a Transplant Psychiatry Special Interest Group (SIG) within the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry over 20 years go, which now has 234 members. This SIG and its list-serve have provided a forum for psychiatrists and psychologists to consult with each other on more diffcult cases and challenging policy issues, creating the fertile ground from which this book developed. In 2000, Paula Trzepacz and Andrea DiMartini published The Transplant Patient: Biological, Psychiatric and Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation [4] which summarized the feld in 12 chapters by 19 psychiatrists and psychologists. This book has 41 chapters by 68 authors. The vitality and excitement of the feld is refected in the breadth of clinical topics covered and that ten of the authors were Foreword vi in training when they contributed to this volume. It is a case-based guide devoted to clinical understanding and clinical problem solving.”

Why a casebook, in the era of big data, to illustrate such a complex clinical environment? Case-based study and problem-based learning remain key tools in medical education [8, 9]. Story telling never gets old and is essential in preparing medical trainees [10], holding special value in multidisciplinary settings [11]. Our aim is that this collection of case stories and discussions will guide those who are starting in this feld and help those who teach medical trainees. Our book focuses on the evaluation and management of psychiatric or psychological issues in transplant patients, rather than on patient’s selection or criteria for transplant listing. Each case story illustrates scenarios the authors encountered in their work. We carefully modifed the social characteristics that were not essential to the clinical discussion in order to make the cases unidentifable

bulletFacing Transplantation: A Guide for Patients and Their Families by Yelizaveta Sher MD (Author), Theodore A. Stern (Editor)

Facing Transplantation is for anyone whose life is affected by this medical intervention. Written by leading health care providers in their fields and members of the transplantation community, Facing Transplantation combines top-tier medical information and compassionate counsel on the management of transplantation, with a caring and sensible approach to the physical and emotional aspects of living with transplantation and its complications. This book provides easily readable and trustworthy information; it is divided into twenty-three chapters that ask and answer pertinent questions about transplantation and its medical and psychiatric/psychological care. A glossary of terms provides important background information to readers (e.g., about medical processes, medications, nutrition, exercise, risk-reduction); online resources and references are also offered; words italicized in the text are defined in the glossary. Each of the chapters is accompanied by selected references, internet resources, illustrations, and photographs.

bulletPsychosocial Care of End-Stage Organ Disease and Transplant Patients Editors: Sher, Yelizaveta, Maldonado, Jose R. (Eds.)

This book takes an integrated, evidence-based approach the psychiatricaspects of organ transplantation. Unlike any  other text currently on the market, this title presents the core principles of transplant psychiatry through an organ-based structure that includes the heart, lungs, liver, GI organs, kidney, composite tissue, and other key areas of transplantation. Each section is divided into chapters discussing psychosocial, medical, and surgical considerations prior to and post-transplant, such as indications leading to a particular type of transplantation, medical course and complications aft er transplantation, psychiatric and psychosocial considerations before and aft er transplantation, history of each type of organ transplant, and any other special considerations. Th e text ends with special topics in care, including psychopharmacology, substance abuse, psychosocial evaluation of recipients and donors, ethical considerations, cross-cultural aspects, and building the transplant psychiatry practice. It includes excellent learning tools, including over 140 tables and figures for ease of use. Written by interdisciplinary experts, Psychosocial Care of End-Stage Disease and Transplant Patients is a valuable resource for students and medical professionals interested in psychiatry, psychology, psychosomatic medicine, transplant surgery, internists, hospital administrators, pharmacists, nurses, and social workers.

bullet“Transplantation” Section of ACLP’s CLP Bibliography

The Dallas convention document on acute alcoholic hepatitis: Meeting Report: The Dallas Consensus Conference on Liver Transplantation for Alcohol Associated Hepatitis – PubMed (nih.gov) 

bulletPublic comment on UNOS policies proposals

bulletOPTN policies on “Living Donation” (PDF, section 14 of Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network [OPTN] Policies)

bulletOrgan Traffiking: The “Taipei Recommendation”

The Asian Task Force on Organ Trafficking, composed of 14 bioethics scholars from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. who share a deep concern about the situation of organ trafficking across borders, has issued its “Recommendations on the Prohibition, Prevention and Elimination of Organ Trafficking in Asia.” These three PDF documents are available for your use and distribution:

PDF iconIntroduction Letter from the chair and coordinator of the task force
PDF iconSummary of Recommendations
PDF iconFull Report

Related Organizations

EAPM Special Interest Group Transplantation Medicine: SIG Transplantation Medicine-EAPM-EAPM (Frank Vinitius, chair)

Psychosocial Community of Practice (PSCOP) is a multidisciplinary group of members of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) who are involved in the assessment and care of the organ recipient and living organ donor throughout the transplant process. The PSCOP, launched in January 2014, will also represent researchers who are interested and involved in psychosocial research in organ transplantation. The AST is uniquely positioned to improve the psychosocial care of transplant candidates, recipients, and donors by providing a venue for transplant psychosocial providers and researchers to convene and establish a collaborative, multidisciplinary professional group.

Membership in PSCOP is free to AST members; non-members may join with a 1-year free trial membership. For more information, see the PSCOP launch flyer. To join, submit the AST’s Community of Practice sign-up form.

European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) is the umbrella organization under which all European transplant activities are organized. ESOT cooperates with many transplant organizations to structure and streamline these activities in Europe.

Several organ expert sections within ESOT represent expert knowledge on particular organs. One of these expert sections is ELPAT, the European Platform for Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of Organ Transplantation. ELPAT will be helpful in mapping and bringing together European expertise on the various ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects of organ transplantation.

 

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