A schizophrenic patient's attempt to resume dialysis following renal transplantation

Received January 29, 1997; revised May 21, 1997; accepted June 5, 1997. From the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Address reprint requests to Dr. Krahn, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street, SW, Rochester, MN 55905. Copyright 1998 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Though limited to case reports, information on patients with schizophrenia undergoing solid-organ and bone-marrow transplantation has generally been positive. Patients with psychotic disorders have been considered appropriate candidates for transplantation but are expected to have special needs. Nonetheless, the special needs of these patients are unclear and will most likely depend upon the individual circumstances of each patient and their previous psychiatric history. In a 1993 survey of transplant programs, only 33% of heart, 15% of liver, and 6% of renal transplant programs indicated that controlled schizophrenia was an absolute contraindication to transplant. We report a patient with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, who was selected for and underwent cadaver renal transplant, and required special intervention in the posttransplant period.