Cognitive and Psychosocial Outcome following Kidney Transplantation

While compromised cognition has been identified in individuals at various stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), few studies have examined cognition following successful kidney transplants. Kidney transplantation typically leads to improvement of metabolic factors associated with CKD; however, co-morbid diseases independently linked with cognitive compromise often persist. To clarify the neuropsychological presentation following successful kidney transplantation, we assessed cognition and distress in 43 kidney transplant recipients, 47 outpatients with CKD and 52 healthy controls. Findings indicated that post-transplant and CKD participants demonstrated significantly poorer verbal memory and response inhibition than controls. In addition, CKD participants performed significantly poorer than controls on the set-shifting task. No significant differences were found for attention. Only transplant participants were significantly more distressed than controls. Results suggest that poor memory and executive functioning performance are present in both CKD and transplant participants. Further research is needed to determine the etiology and extent of cognitive compromise.