Emotional Affect in Heart Transplant Candidates: A Multicenter Longitudinal Study

Kelly Pennington^1*Abdelrahman Ahmed¹Bradley Johnson¹Daniel Yip²Roberto Benzo¹Terry Schneekloth¹Barry Boilson¹Richard Daly¹Cassie Kennedy¹

• ¹Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States
• ²Mayo Clinic Arizona, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

We sincerely thank you for your thoughtful review of our manuscript, Emotional Affect in Heart Transplant Candidates: A Multicenter Longitudinal Study. We appreciate the time and expertise each reviewer dedicated to providing constructive feedback, which has helped us improve the clarity, structure, and rigor of our work.We have carefully considered all comments and have revised the manuscript accordingly. A detailed point-by-point response to each reviewer's suggestion is included in the comments section of the tracked manuscript. In summary, we have:• Clarified sample sizes across analyses and revised legends for all tables to include abbreviations, statistical tests, and significance thresholds.• Refined the Discussion to address the potential mood effects of immunosuppressive therapy and the influence of unmeasured sociodemographic factors such as employment status.• Revised the Conclusion to more clearly distinguish between pre-and post-transplant emotional trajectories and to highlight clinical implications.• Made minor edits throughout the text for clarity and consistency, and addressed all recommended language changes.We have not included additional analyses beyond those already presented, in keeping with the original scope and aims of the study. We hope the revised manuscript meets your expectations and look forward to the opportunity to contribute to Frontiers in Psychology.