Liver transplantation is, nowadays, considered the treatment of election for many patients with severe liver disease.

Paramyloidosis is a very uncommon genetic liver disease almost only present in Portugal and about which very little has been published.

We aimed to study the psychiatric and psychosocial differences between paramyloidotic and other liver transplant candidates.

We studied a liver transplant candidates sample (n=100), comprising consecutive patients attending out-patient clinics of a Public Liver Transplantation Central Unit (30% of patients with paramyloidosis, 70% with other liver diseases - alcohol liver disease, liver cancer, C hepatitis) by means of DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, TAS (Taylor 1991), Neo FFI personality inventory (McCrae1992), HADS (Zigmond 1983), Brief COPE (Carver,1997) and a multi-dimension adherence questionnaire (Telles-Correia 2006).

Only 28% showed no lifetime psychiatric disorders in the past, and as current DSM-IV psychiatric diagnosis 25% showed major depressive disorder, 18% anxiety disorders, 11% adaptative disorder, 6% dependence/abuse of alcohol or other substances. Twenty percent of the patients presented alexithymia (TAS), 40% had moderate-high scores for anxiety and 36% for depression (HADS). There was a predominance of acceptance, active coping, use of emotional support, positive reframing, and planning coping strategies

We found that paramyloidotic patients showed lower scores for anxiety and depression; for neuroticism personality trait; selfblame, emotional expression and disinvestment coping strategies. They showed higher scores for openness personality trait; religion, positive reinterpretation and planning coping strategies.