Long-term psychosocial outcomes after face transplantation : a patient's and a partner's perspective

To date, psychosocial outcomes after face transplantation are promising, although the impact on family relationships is less well investigated. Depressive and anxiety symptoms, resilience, spousal support, dyadic adjustment, family functioning of a patient and the partner were assessed before, and two, three and four years after the face transplantation. Most psychological, marital and family scores of both partners remained within a normative and healthy range at follow-up. Resilience, illness cognitions, physical quality of life, and family affective responsiveness and communication of the patient further improved, whereas the partner reported higher resilience and dyadic consensus at four years after transplantation. The results of this study point to positive long-term psychosocial outcomes of a blind patient and his partner after face transplantation. Practitioner points Psychological health of patient and partner remains good after face transplantation Marital and family functioning remains stable after face transplantation and may even improve Face transplantation may strengthen the resilience of the patient and the partne