Pretransplant psychiatric and medical comorbidity of alcoholic liver disease patients who received liver transplant.

The authors examined the pretransplant prevalence of comorbid physical and psychological disorders in 112 alcoholic liver disease patients who received liver transplant. Fifty-six percent of the patients had comorbid hepatitis C or hepatitis B virus, 40% had used other substances in addition to alcohol, 25% met the criteria for a lifetime DSM-IV nonalcohol substance use disorder, 36% for a lifetime depressive disorder, and 12% for a lifetime anxiety disorder. The findings suggest the need for pretransplant psychiatric evaluation of alcoholic liver disease patients to identify nonalcohol substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders that may require treatment.