Psychiatric and Identity Reconstruction Following Organ Transplantation: A Review of Patient-Attributed Donor-Related Experiences

19/09/2026

AI Summary

Recipients report mood, identity, preference, and memory-like changes, but accounts are subjective, inconsistently reproduced, and based on low-level evidence.
No empirically supported biological mechanism was identified to support "cellular memory" claims of memory or personality transfer.
Findings underline clinical relevance and recommend integrating psychiatric screening and counselling into routine posttransplant care.

TL;DR (AI Generated)

Organ transplantation has increasingly been associated with significant psychological and psychiatric sequelae following surgery.

While psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression are well documented, some transplant recipients also report changes in personality, behavior, or identity that they attribute to the controversial concept of "cellular memory." This narrative review evaluates reported psychiatric and psychological changes following organ transplantation and examines explanatory models beyond the concept of "cellular memory." A narrative review of literature published between 1997 and 2025 was conducted using the ScienceDirect, PubMed, and SciLit databases.

These findings highlight the importance of addressing psychiatric symptoms as part of comprehensive posttransplant care and support integration of psychiatric screening and counseling into posttransplant care.

Basic summary

Transplant Proc. 2026 Sep 18:S0041-1345(26)00462-8. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2026.07.040. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Organ transplantation has increasingly been associated with significant psychological and psychiatric sequelae following surgery. While psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression are well documented, some transplant recipients also report changes in personality, behavior, or identity that they attribute to the controversial concept of “cellular memory.” This narrative review evaluates reported psychiatric and psychological changes following organ transplantation and examines explanatory models beyond the concept of “cellular memory.” A narrative review of literature published between 1997 and 2025 was conducted using the ScienceDirect, PubMed, and SciLit databases. Studies describing posttransplant psychiatric symptoms, personality changes, or identity reconstruction were included. A total of six studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Reported phenomena included mood disturbances, identity changes, altered preferences, and memory-like experiences that recipients attributed to donor characteristics. These reported experiences were primarily subjective, inconsistently reproduced, and derived from low-level evidence. No empirically supported biological mechanism for the transfer of memory or personality through organ transplantation was identified. Although current evidence does not support “cellular memory” as a biological phenomenon, recipient-reported psychological experiences remain clinically relevant. These findings highlight the importance of addressing psychiatric symptoms as part of comprehensive posttransplant care and support integration of psychiatric screening and counseling into posttransplant care.

PMID:42760214 | DOI:10.1016/j.transproceed.2026.07.040

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