Psychological and psychiatric aspects of bone marrow transplantation

Abstract

The intensity and complexity involved in all levels of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) causes profound psychological effects on the patient, family and professional team. Ignoring this fact and reducing BMT issues to purely technical aspects may be catastrophical to the patients and his/her family and may challenge the survival of the program. In this work, three very important aspects of mental health in BMT are discussed: 1) multiple roles played by psychiatric assistance in BMT, from drug prescription through support of the team by group reflexion; 2) an analysis of emotions experienced by BMT patients in the different phases of transplantation (pre, intra- and post-) under the perspective of hope for cure ; 3) an evaluation of quality of life of patients submitted to BMT at medium and long terms, integrating various psychological instruments including projective techniques.