Further evaluation of a scale to screen for risk of emotional difficulties in bone marrow transplant recipients.

A study was designed to evaluate a scale screening for risk of emotional difficulties in bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients. Forty subjects were assessed before the transplant by an experienced BMT nurse familiar with the patients and immediately after hospitalization for BMT by two raters: a psycho-social BMT nurse and an independent researcher generating record-review ratings. The pre-transplant ratings were compared with emotional difficulties of patients during their isolation for BMT. A predictive value of emotional problems during BMT based on the pre-BMT assessment was found (rs = 0.57, P < 0.001). Main pre-BMT psycho-social characteristics showing a significant correlation with emotional difficulties during BMT included quality of affect, mental status and proneness to anticipatory anxiety. Such a scale can be valuable in anticipating patients' emotional difficulties at an early stage, where more time is allowed for careful planning of care and the patients can be involved in the management of their care.