What are strategies for coping with chronic illness?

Introduction

Coping with chronic illness is a complex and multifaceted process that significantly impacts an individual's psychological and emotional well-being. Various strategies have been studied to understand their effectiveness in helping patients manage the stress and challenges associated with chronic conditions.

Key Insights

Information Seeking and Positive Attitudes:
- Information seeking is consistently shown to have beneficial effects on psychological adjustment in patients with chronic illnesses . Positive attitudes and a conscious way of living are also linked to higher life satisfaction and better adjustment.
Wish-Fulfilling Fantasy and Emotion-Focused Coping:
- Engaging in wish-fulfilling fantasy and emotion-focused coping strategies, such as wishful thinking, self-blame, and avoidance, are associated with poorer psychological adjustment and increased depression .
Cognitive Strategies and Coping in Children:
- Children with chronic illnesses often use cognitive coping strategies, which are effective in managing stress and painful events. These strategies vary with age and the type of stressor faced.
Role of Health Care Professionals:
- Health care professionals play a crucial role in identifying when a patient's usual coping strategies are inadequate and in helping them discover new strategies and resources to manage their illness effectively .
Acceptance vs. Coping:
- Acceptance of chronic pain is associated with less pain, disability, depression, and anxiety, and better overall adjustment compared to traditional coping strategies.
Adaptive Coping Strategies:
- Adaptive coping strategies, such as seeking medical help, alternative help, and maintaining a positive outlook, are important for managing chronic pain and improving life satisfaction.

Conclusion

Effective coping strategies for chronic illness include information seeking, maintaining positive attitudes, and acceptance of the condition. Emotion-focused coping and wish-fulfilling fantasy are generally maladaptive. Health care professionals are essential in guiding patients to discover and implement effective coping strategies. Cognitive strategies are particularly beneficial for children, and adaptive strategies that enhance a sense of control and positive interpretation of the illness can significantly improve life satisfaction and psychological adjustment.

What are strategies for coping with chronic illness?

Summary

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

Coping with chronic illness: a study of illness controllability and the influence of coping strategies on psychological adjustment.

Coping strategies can improve emotional well-being in middle-aged and older adults with chronic illnesses, but wish-fulfilling fantasy can lead to poor adjustment in a mutually reinforcing cycle.

Cognitive Coping Strategies of Children with Chronic Illness

Children with chronic illness use cognitive strategies for coping as often as healthy children, with coping strategies being their predominant strategy for adapting to common painful and stressful events.

Coping with chronic illness: A study of illness controllability and the influence of coping strategies on psychological adjustment J. consult. clin. Psychol., 52 (1984) 343–353

Information seeking improves psychological adjustment in chronic illness patients, while wish-fulfilling fantasy negatively affects it, regardless of illness controllability.

Coping strategies of the chronically ill.

Healthcare professionals can help patients manage chronic illness more effectively by discovering new coping strategies, controlling stressors, and using resources not previously used.

Adaptive coping strategies in patients with chronic pain conditions and their interpretation of disease

Positive attitudes and higher age significantly predict life satisfaction in patients with chronic pain conditions, while internal adaptive coping strategies like cognitive reappraisal enhance positive interpretations of disease.

Coping strategies of the chronically ill.

Health care professionals can help patients manage chronic illness more effectively by discovering new coping strategies, controlling stressors, and using resources not previously used.

Coping, efficacy, and perceived control in acute vs chronic illnesses

Acute illnesses have higher self-efficacy, while chronic illnesses use more palliative coping strategies, with self-efficacy being negatively related to emotional preoccupation coping.

Developing interventions for chronically ill patients: is coping a helpful concept?

Coping interventions can improve patients' quality of life in chronic diseases, but more explicit consideration of the concept is needed for effective interventions.

Coping or acceptance: what to do about chronic pain?

Acceptance of chronic pain is more effective than coping strategies in reducing pain, disability, depression, and anxiety, and improving daily uptime and work status in patients.

The relationship of appraisal and coping to chronic illness adjustment.

Emotion-focused coping strategies, such as wishful thinking, self-blame, and avoidance, are linked to poor psychosocial adjustment and depression in patients with chronic medical conditions.

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