Research Article Psychosocial Status of Liver Transplant Candidates in Iran and Its Correlation with Health-Related Quality of Life and Depression and Anxiety Maryam Banihashemi, 1 Mohsen Hafezi, 1 Mohsen Nasiri-Toosi, 2 Ali Jafarian, 2 Mohammad Reza Abbasi, 3 Mohammad Arbabi, 4 Maryam Abdi, 1 Mahzad Khavarian, 1 and Ali-Akbar Nejatisafa 2,5 1 Psychosomatic Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1419733141, Iran 2 Liver Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1419733141, Iran 3 Nephrology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1419733141, Iran 4 Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1333715914, Iran 5 Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1419733141, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to Ali-Akbar Nejatisafa; nejatisafa@tums.ac.ir Received 24 July 2015; Accepted 14 September 2015 Academic Editor: Patrizia Burra Copyright © 2015 Maryam Banihashemi et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. Te study was aimed at providing a psychosocial profle for Iranian liver transplant candidates referred to an established liver transplantation program. Material and Methods. Patients assessed for liver transplant candidacy in Imam Khomeini Hospital (Tehran, Iran) between March 2013 and September 2014 were included. Te following battery of tests were administered: Psychosocial Assessment of Candidates for Transplant (PACT), the Short-Form health survey (SF-36), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results. Psychosocial assessment in 205 liver transplant candidates revealed signifcant impairments in several SF-36 domains; social functioning was the least and physical functioning was the most impaired domains. Te prevalence of cases with probable anxiety and depressive disorders, according to HADS, was 13.8% and 5.6%, respectively. According to PACT, 24.3% of the assessed individuals were considered good or excellent candidates. In 11.2%, transplantation seemed poor candidate due to at least one major psychosocial or lifestyle risk factor. Poor candidate quality was associated with impaired health-related quality of life and higher scores on anxiety and depression scales ( < 0.05). Conclusions. Transplant programs could implement specifc intervention programs based on normative databases to address the psychosocial issues in patients in order to improve patient care, quality of life, and transplant outcomes. 1. Introduction In 2001, End Stage Liver Failure (ESLF) accounted for about 800,000 deaths worldwide [1]. Te 5-year mortality rate of ESLF is estimated to be 50% [2]. Liver transplantation is currently the only available treatment that can reverse, albeit temporarily, the deteriorating trajectory of events leading to death, thereby signifcantly increasing patient’s life- expectancy [1]. Te psychiatrist plays a key role in the transplant team; the services ofered by the psychiatrist span from the initial stages of the assessment process to the indefnite added life years gained by the patient afer the transplant [3]. In the pretransplant period, the psychiatrist evaluates the patient and forms his/her expert opinion regarding the presence of absolute contraindications to receiving an organ [4, 5]. Pre- operatively, adjustment disorders, major depression, anxiety disorders, and other Axis I disorders are highly prevalent in transplant candidates. Current substance dependence, previous deliberate self-harm, and severe mental disorders are among the contraindications of the organ transplanta- tion [4]. If psychiatric disorders are lef untreated prior to Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Transplantation Volume 2015, Article ID 329615, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/329615