Measurement of Neurobehavioral Responses to Renal Failure, Dialysis, and Transplantation

Abstract

The psychological factors to be considered in this chapter are likely to have two general orientations: (1) inward, toward self, and (2) outward, toward interactions with persons and things in the world—with components of thought and fantasy embracing both. There would be enough psychological factors for us to consider even if our patients were “simply” confronted with the coping stresses of a catastrophic illness. But in this presentation, your attention is invited to the fact that in patients with renal failure the problem is more complicated: the brain, the instrument of coping, of thought, fantasy, and interaction, is itself poisoned. And the treatment which relieves the poisoning itself creates both internal and external coping stresses at both physical and psychological levels.