After immunosuppressants, the best medicine for organ transplant patients may be gratitude.
In a study of organ recipients, researchers from UC Davis and the Mississippi University for Women found that patients who keep “gratitude journals” score better on measures of mental health, general health and vitality than those who keep only routine notes about their days.
“We found that increased feelings of gratitude can cause people’s well-being and quality of life to improve,” said Robert Emmons, a UC Davis professor who specializes in the study of gratitude.
Emmons conducted the study with Stefanie Greiner and Stephanie Ivie of the Mississippi University for Women. Titled “Gratitude and Quality of Life in Transplant Recipients,” the study will be presented as a poster at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
The study included four male and 12 female transplant recipients recruited via transplant e-mail groups and Web sites for transplant recipients.
After completing initial questionnaires about their health and wellbeing, the subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group kept routine daily notes about medication side-effects, how they felt about life overall, how connected they were to others and how they felt about the upcoming day. Patients in the other group answered the same questions but were also asked to list five things or people they were grateful for each day and why they were grateful for them. They were asked to reflect on what they wrote as well.
After 21 days, mental health and general wellbeing scores had risen for patients in the gratitude group but declined for those in the control group. Patients in the control group also reported a loss of vitality, while the grateful patients experienced no change.
“It’s likely that health and vitality scores declined in the control group because, unlike the experimental group, they did not benefit from the protective effect of gratitude,” Emmons said. “Having a chronic medical condition puts one at risk for deteriorating mental health, and a reduction in one’s sense of general health and vitality is an indicator of this. Gratitude may serve as a buffer against these risks.”
Emmons is a leading contributor to the positive psychology movement and the author of the recently released book “Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.”
Source: University of California - Davis
Related stories:
Quest: Repairing more hearts with implanted pumps
(AP) -- When it comes to hearts, Taneal Wilson won the lottery. A small pump implanted to keep the 31-year-old alive long enough for a heart transplant somehow helped Wilson's ravaged heart completely recover instead.
New protocol streamlines therapy that makes more kidney transplants possible
A new therapy developed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center improves transplant rates and outcomes for patients awaiting living- and deceased-donor kidney transplantation, according to a study published in the July 17 issue of the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Donor kidneys removed with single bellybutton cut
(AP) -- Brad Kaster donated a kidney to his father this week, and he barely has a scar to show for it. The kidney was removed through a single incision in his bellybutton, a surgical procedure Cleveland Clinic doctors say will reduce recovery time and leave almost no scarring.
Low health insurance caps leave patients stranded
(AP) -- Mary Wusterbarth thought her toddler was struggling with an ear infection when she seemed sluggish. Instead, a virus had attacked the little girl's heart, damaging it beyond repair. Brea needed a transplant.
Predicting the risk of a common fungal infection after stem cell transplantation
In silico genetic analysis in mice has led to the discovery of a gene affecting susceptibility to a severe fungal infection in transplant recipients. In a study published June 20th in the open-access journal
PLoS Genetics, investigators from Duke University Medical Center, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Roche Palo Alto, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center found that genetic variation within the plasminogen gene in mice and men affects susceptibility to a severe and life-threatening fungal infection.
Kidney transplant patients may benefit from going off of certain immunosuppressive drugs
Withdrawal of calcineurin inhibitors provides long-term health benefits and saves money
Withdrawing certain immunosuppressive drugs following kidney transplantation prolongs survival and saves money compared with keeping patients on these medications for life, according to a study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the
Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).
Serum sodium predicts mortality 10 times higher in PAH patients
Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)—chronically high blood pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs—whose serum sodium levels are low (called hyponatremia, or HN) have a very poor chance of survival and a high rate of right-heart failure (RHF), according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania.
Promising advances in islet cell transplants for diabetes
University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have modified the procedure for islet cell transplantation and achieved insulin independence in diabetes patients with fewer but better-functioning pancreatic islet cells.