The Effect of Psychological Support for the Relatives of Intensive Care Unit Patients on Cadaveric Organ Donation Rate

We searched to see whether psychological support for relatives of intensive care unit patients helps them to donate organs of their brain-dead relatives. After receiving ethics committee permission, first-degree relatives of 200 general intensive care unit patients were enrolled in the study. The participants were divided into 2 groups randomly: an interview group (n = 100) and a control group (n = 100). Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. Interviews with the psychologist and patients' relatives in the interview group were therapeutic in nature and were conducted according to the relatives' psychosocial needs in an unstructured format. In the control group, the psychologist and patients' relatives were not interviewed. The study utilized demographic data, the questionnaire for relatives of patients to mention their attitude on organ donation and the reasons for this choice, and the Participant Information Form to record demographic data and relatives' degree of relationship with the patient. There was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups when compared according to sex ratio, patient age, and duration of patients' hospital stay. Whereas in the interview group, 75% agreed to allow their relatives to be organ donors, only 32% in the control group agreed (P < .0001). Of the 200 patients enrolled in the study, 93 lost their lives: 50 from the interview group and 43 from the control group. Among the relatives whose patients had lost their lives, 78% belonging to the interview group accepted to donate the organs of their patients, whereas in the control group 13.9% accepted (P < .0001). We hope that psychological support for the relatives of the potential brain-dead donor to cope with the psychological problems to be faced can improve the rate of organ donation.