Emotional and Psychological Experiences of Transplanted Patients in Communicating with Families of Brain-dead Donors

Introduction: Transplanted patients’ communication with the families of brain-dead donors is a new experience, which provokes different reactions in both sides due to its different dimensions. The aim of this study was to clarify emotional and psychological experiences of transplanted patients in communicating with brain-dead donors’ families. Method: This study was a qualitative research conducted using the phenomenology approach. The experiences of transplanted patients were studied using unstructured and in-depth interviews. Data saturation was reached by interviewing 8 transplanted patients who communicated with the brain-dead patients’ families. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis based on Colaizzi’s method. Results: The findings of this survey can be classified into two general concepts of anxiety, and psychological and mental disturbances after receiving the organ. These two concepts consist of smaller concepts. Anxiety consists of concepts such as complicated therapy, regret due to relationship problems, stress and worry, and stress after the incident. Mental and psychological disturbances after receiving the organ consist of the recipient’s mental challenges with her/himself, and increase in blood pressure due to stress. Conclusion: Transplantation is an important event occurring in the life of these patients. The anxiety of the possible failure of transplantation is a problem that these patients are exposed to after transplantation. Communication and familiarity with the donor’s family also increase this anxiety. If the brain-dead donor’s family wishes to communicate with the organ recipient, it is better to start this relationship under special conditions and the supervision of a psychologist. Keywords: Emotional experience, Psychological experience, Organ transplantation, Communication, Family, Brain deat

Developmental screening of children with congenital hypothyroidism using Ages & Stages Questionnaires test.

 Abstract:Objectives: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is one of the most common causes of mental retardation in children. This study investigated the developmental status of children with CH screened by Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) measurement scores.Materials & Methods: In this retrospective study, neurodevelopmental status of 78 children diagnosed with CH who being followed up at the outpatient Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic of Besat Hospital, Hamadan, Iran, was evaluated by ASQ method. Data on age, sex, birth body weight, height and head circumference, residency location, parental education level, primary venous TSH and T4 level, diagnosis age, treatment start age and initial levothyroxine dosage were extracted from medical records .Data analyzed using statistical software SPSS v16. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Of the 78 patients (34=43.6% female), 32 patients (41%) had developmental disorder. 56 cases (71.8%) were living in urban areas. In terms of type of developmental impairment, global delay: 13 patients (40.6%), problem solving: 11 patients (34.3%), communication: 5 patients (15.6%), fine motor: 2 patients (6.2%) and personal-social: 1 patient (3.1%) were detected. The average of diagnosis and treatment age was 25.65 days in patients with developmental impairment and 17.99 days in those without delay. ASQ results had significant statistical correlation with initial dose of levothyroxine (p=0.017), hypothyroidism diagnosis age (p=0.002) and age of treatment initiation (p=0.018).Conclusions: Early diagnosis and treatment along with initial L-thyroxin dose were most important factor of ASQ scores of children with CH. Higher amounts of the LT4 is required at onset