Psychodiagnostic Examination of a Living Kidney Donor. Correlation Between the Scales Referred to the Paranoia of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2: A Case Report

Transplant Proc. 2020 Jun;52(5):1623-1626. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2020.03.010. Epub 2020 May 11.

Abstract

Introduction: The study involves the psychodiagnostic evaluation of a 53-year-old female living kidney donor. The donation is in favor of the 56-year-old sister. The potential donor is separated, is currently unemployed, and holds a lower secondary education diploma.

Methodology: The psychodiagnostic evaluation of the donor was carried out by means of clinical-anamnestic interviews, followed by Graphic-Projective Tests. The MMPI-2 Personality Test was administered at a later stage.

Results: It was noted that the patient showed: an initial lack of collaboration to undergo the psychodiagnostic evaluation; limited cognitive aspects of flexibility, criticism, and judgment; a distinct emotive response, which manifested as closure, anxiety, and dependence on the other; and elements that resulted from MMPI-2. The analysis of the clinical interviews, of the tests and their correlations, shows the existence of a simple personality framework characterized by concrete thinking that seldom performs functions exceeding the limits by a tendency toward closure and introversion and by consistent mood tone. No elements of psychopathology were identified.

Conclusions: The psychodiagnostic evaluation resulted in excluding the subsistence of psychopathologies and allowed for a positive judgment of the suitability for donation. The evaluation also provided significant information on the limited capacity for therapeutic alliance and on the general attitude of closure and rejection of inputs coming from the external world. Patient monitoring is recommended in case of actual donation.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Donor Selection
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Kidney Transplantation*
  • Living Donors / psychology*
  • MMPI
  • Middle Aged
  • Paranoid Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Personality
  • Personality Inventory