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Psychology of Living Kidney Donation

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Living Kidney Donation

Abstract

Having your kidney removed in order to save the life of someone with kidney failure is more than just a physical experience but is also a psychological one. Psychological issues include donor motivation and understanding of the procedure, potential imbalances in the donor-recipient relationship and expectations of one another, the potential for pressure from or conflict with the social network due to donation, concerns or ambivalence about donation, donor resilience and psychological stability, ability to deal with setbacks, and availability of instrumental and emotional support during the process. Consequently, psychosocial evaluation of potential living kidney donors is an important step in the process. In this chapter we discuss the psychological screening of living donors as well as the topics that are typically incorporated into this evaluation including motivation, decision-making, the donor-recipient relationship, mental health, co** and social support. In addition, we discuss how donors experience the donation process and the current state of the art regarding long term psychosocial outcomes among living donors.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC Transplant Institute, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

    Emma K. Massey

  2. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery, KU Leuven, Belgium

    Fabienne Dobbels

  3. Transplantation Unit, Curry Cabral Hospital, Central Lisbon University Hospital Center, Lisbon, Portugal

    Inês Mega

  4. Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Christina Papachristou

Authors
  1. Emma K. Massey
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  2. Fabienne Dobbels
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  3. Inês Mega
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  4. Christina Papachristou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emma K. Massey .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University Hospitals Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Adnan Sharif

  2. University Hospitals Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Graham Lipkin

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Massey, E.K., Dobbels, F., Mega, I., Papachristou, C. (2022). Psychology of Living Kidney Donation. In: Sharif, A., Lipkin, G. (eds) Living Kidney Donation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09520-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09520-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-09519-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-09520-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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