[Psychosomatic follow-up of chronic transplanted kidney patients].

: It is described the follow-up of 48 patients on which kidney transplantation was performed at the Instituto de Investigaciones Medicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. This work was carried out with a psychosomatic outlook, which considers the patient as a whole. There were periodically sessions applying a psychotherapeutical and pharmacological treatment to the recipient, donor and/or family group, according to needs. Special importance is given to the psychotherapeutical performance to the physician. What has been observed in these 48 patients is compared to a previous sample group of 80 patients. What has been observed in these 48 patients is compared to a previous sample group of 80 patients. In this first group, it could be noticed that to get on with their treatment these patients needed a good tolerance to frustrations, combined with a supporting family group. It is also necessary the establishment to a close dependent relationship with some relative, and/or physician and or institution which takes care of very regressive anxieties. The main problem here, is the handling of aggression caused by the combination of the patients's psychological background and the characteristics of the treatment. The patients that showed low tolerance to frustrations, extreme dependence and psychopathic handling of aggression, combined with the absence of a supporting family group, presented, as in the preceding sample, suicidal behaviour (2 cases). Some of the observations made in the previous work, were confirmed and the psychiatric pathology found in the second group is noticeably inferior. They are described in the comparative table. The authors conclude that the positive changes are due to the fact that in these patients, a more precise pattern of selections from the immunological point of view was applied. This diminished complications and side-effects and therefore psychological trauma also diminished, contributing to a better adaptation.