Psychological evaluation of living kidney donors

Organ donation activity is not at the desired level even in countries that are considered to be advanced in organ donation activity. There is no country in the world that supplies all of the tissues and organs from cadaveric donors. However, in developed countries, 80 percent of donors are cadaveric organ donors, while 20 percent of them are living donors. This ratio is the opposite in Turkey. Kidney transplantation from living donors is regarded as a contradictory case to the "first do no harm" principle as a major surgical intervention is performed on a normal and healthy person at the expense of recovery of the organ recipient. Nevertheless, the living donor's acknowledgement of the reason why the operation is performed and awareness of the importance of organ donation as a life gift, makes the kidney transplantaion ethically acceptable. Literature review indicates that in a 40-year medical follow-up living kidney donors shows no difference in kidney failure and other diseases frequency in comparison to the rest of society. Researches and publications on psychological after transplantation; however, are limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a significant difference between the socio-demographic variables, which have an impact on psychiatric change of living kidney donors and post-traumatic development of living kidney donors. In the scope of the study, 184 living kidney donors aged 19 to 65 are selected as follows: 125 women, 165 married, 50 parents, and 134 urban residents. Only 55 of the recipients were registered on the waiting list while 117 of them received dialysis. It is demonstrated that the sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, time spent on dialysis,time after te transplantation, and living place of both donors and recipients have no significant impact on the post-traumatic development. The study puts that being a living kidney donor has no negative effect on people themselves.