Introduction: Lung transplant has currently emerged as the gold standard treatment for end-stage lung diseases. Recipients often suffer from various psychological issues after surgery, such as anxiety, depression, and identity confusion, which may impact their recovery and quality of life. Moreover, self-adjustment can promote patients to participate in self-management after transplantation, improve their psychological status and quality of life. This paper aims to summarize the relevant studies so as to offer evidence-based support for the summary of psychological issues and self-adjustment methods for lung transplant recipients.
Method: The method of overviews of systematic review was used to sort out and summarize existing systematic review studies. The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Chinese databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang data, Chinese Scientific Journals Full-text Database (VIP) and China Biology Medicine Disc (CBM) were searched from the establishment of the database until January 30,2024. Two researchers screened the literature and extracted study-related information, and applied the Systematic Review Methodological Quality Assessment Tool 2 (AMSTAR 2) Scales, Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Priority Reporting Items (PRISMA 2020) statements to assess methodological and reporting quality.
Results: A total of 11 systematic reviews were included, covering "psychological issues" and "psychological self-adjustment methods". Common psychological issues include anxiety, depression, uncertainty about the future, adjustment disorders, sense of inadequacy and fear of complications. And the psychological self-adjustment methods can be summarized as (1) resuming daily activities, (2) accepting self, (3) adjusting expectations so as to calmly face the prognosis of the disease, (4) actively integrating into the society, (5) avoiding anxiety, (6) perceiving social support, and strengthening inner strength. The results of AMSTAR 2 assessment showed that the overall methodological quality was low, and the methodological quality of most studies was low or very low, and three key items (Item 2, Item 9, Item 13) were seriously missing. The results of PRISMA statement showed that only 2 studies (18.2%) had relatively comprehensive reports, and most of the studies still needed to be improved in terms of reporting standardization.
Conclusion：At present, the methodological quality and reporting quality of the studies on psychological issues and self-adjustment methods for lung transplant recipients need to be improved. Self-adjustment can improve the psychological issues of lung transplant recipients，but more high-quality, large-sample studies are still needed for further validation.