To evaluate psychiatric features in liver post transplant HIV recipients.

An observational study was conducted. Different psychiatric rating scales to evaluate cognitive status (MMSE), anxiety and depressive symptoms (HAM-A, HAM-D), social phobia (BSPS), quality of life (SF-36), sexual satisfaction (ISS), coping strategies (Brief Cope) and alcohol-drug abuse (LDQ) were submitted to a population of 11 HIV outpatients that underwent to OLT (19% of the Italian HIV transplant recipients). Scores were statistically related to socio-demographic and clinical data.

All patients were male, aged between 33 and 54 years. In the past 8 patients were drug abusers, three suffered from depression. At the moment of the evaluation 8 patients didn't suffer from any psychiatric disease while the three youngest patients presented a mild depressive status. BASIS-32 scores were related to HAM-D and to a history of drug abuse (p< 0.01). SF-36 was related to age (p< 0.05), HAM-D (p< 0.01), BSPS and BASIS 32 (p< 0.02).

Despite the higher risk for a HIV patient of developing an anxious or mood disorder, our population isn’t affected by psychiatric diseases; this is an encouraging data considering that post transplant period can be very stressful. This result may be due to a personality organization or a coping style strengthened by a long term disease such as HIV. Further studies are needed to investigate psychosocial outcome of OLT in HIV and to improve our knowledge of this controversial issue and guarantee a better take in care of these complex patients.