TABLE 2.

PTSD risk factors

Studied risk factors	General PTSD literature (children/young adult)	Child/young adult transplant recipients	General PTSD literature (adult)	Adult transplant recipients	Caregivers of transplant recipients	Spouses of transplant recipients
Associated with PTSD	Prior psychological problems Parental psychological problems Previous negative life events Low IQ Low SES Female Sex Ethnicity Younger age (only if the trauma is a group event, not an individual event) Trauma severity Peritraumatic fear Perceived life threat during traumatic event	None proven.	Psychiatric history Prior psychological/adjustment problems Previous trauma Reported childhood abuse General childhood adversity Family psychiatric history Lower education Peritraumatic dissociation Peritraumatic emotionality (high emotions) Perceived life threat during traumatic event In some study samples: Gender, younger age at trauma, race.	Pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis (30). Greater benzodiazepine consumption (30) Younger age at interview (30) History of retransplantation (30) For lung transplant recipients, chronic dyspnea early post-transplant (36)	None identified.	None identified.
Not associated with PTSD	Younger age (only if the trauma is an individual event, not a group event	Gender (12, 21) Age at time of transplant (12) Age at interview (12, 21) Time since transplant (12) Organ type (12) Ethnicity (12)	In some study samples (63): Gender, Younger age at trauma, Race/ethnicity	Gender (30). Age at interview (Possemato et al., 2009) Alcohol abuse (30) Marital status (30) Years in education and/or vocational training (30) Employment status (30) For heart transplant recipients, presence of VAD (34)	Gender (recipient) (23) Age at time of transplant (recipient) (23, 24) Time since transplant (24) Organ type (23) Caregiver's age at time of transplant (23, 24) Caregiver's educational level (23) Caregiver's ethnicity (23) Caregiver's level of acculturation (23)	Age at interview (recipient) (18) Time since transplant (18) Type of assist device for heart transplant recipients (18) Indication for heart transplantation (18)

Note: To identify risk factors in the general PTSD literature, three relatively recent meta-analyses were used, with only pre- and peri-trauma variables considered (61-63). To determine risk factors in the transplant literature, variables that are static or unrelated to PTSD effects (i.e., age, ethnicity, time since transplant, organ type) or are preoperative were used.