Psychological suffering of patients transplanted with hematopoietic stem cells

Abstract

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) affects serious risks for the patient, including death. For this reason, it is considered a treatment that can cure or can present morbidities and lead to death. In this context, patients experience the first psychological conflicts before this transplant. To describe the psychological suffering developed by patients transplanted with hematopoietic stem cells from a referral service in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative, descriptive, hospital-based approach developed with patients submitted to HSCT at a referral service in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. Data were collected between March and September of 2016, through the evaluation of the medical records of 43 patients who underwent HSCT and developed some type of psychological distress. Among 43 patients with psychological disorders, 51.16% were female, 62.79% developed anxiety 32.56% developed insomnia and 20.93% developed depression. Of these, 27.91% had a main diagnosis indicating the transplantation of Multiple Myeloma (MM), and 58.14 received autologous transplantation. It was observed that the patient had psychological suffering from the diagnosis until the end. The health professional praxis also must go beyond the resolution of physical human responses and, especially in these cases, it should aim at the early identification of signs and symptoms of psychological distress, being possible to achieve the real health needs and treat them with effectiveness.