In the face of change: Which coping strategies predict better psychosocial outcomes in face transplant recipients?

OBJECTIVES: Face transplantation aims to improve patients’ quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with a disfiguring injury. With 40 cases worldwide, little is known about coping strategies predicting resilient outcomes. DESIGN: Six patients followed in Boston, completed the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997) along with validated measures of depression, self-esteem, and quality of life – every 3 months during the first year post-transplant and every 6 months thereafter, up to 36 months post-transplant. ANALYSES: Due to sample size and distribution of the data, nonparametric tests were used to characterize the relation of coping strategies with psychosocial outcomes. RESULTS: As expected, active coping strategies were associated with better mental health pre-transplant, while avoidant coping strategies were associated with poorer mental health. Patients using support-based strategies reported better mental health at baseline. Post-transplant, the pattern reversed such that avoidant strategies appeared protective, when looking at mental health trajectories over 18 months. Importantly, trends identified during the first 18 months matched the trajectories of all patients with existing data up to 36 months post-transplant, for all outcomes measured. CONCLUSION: Different coping strategies support optimal outcomes in the pre-versus post-transplant phases. Pre-transplant data may better inform interventions supporting mental health of transplant candidates than predict post-transplant behavior. Early post-transplant data seems to provide promising insight in long term psychosocial outcomes. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our data stresses the need for pre-transplant assessment of coping and post-transplant coping training. Research aiming to optimize post-transplant psychosocial outcomes should consider coping as a promising target for intervention.