Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T02:27:35.262Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Coping with chronic illness

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Keith J. Petrie  and
Lisa Reynolds
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Keith J. Petrie
Affiliation:
The University of Auckland
Lisa Reynolds
Affiliation:
The University of Auckland
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
Get access

Summary

The increase in chronic illness

Chronic illness is now the predominant disease pattern in most developed countries. Advances in medicine have transformed many previously deadly infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and influenza into treatable conditions and some have disappeared almost completely. The resulting improved longevity of populations has meant a growth in the burden caused by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Chronic illnesses often strike in middle- and older-age-groups and bring with them considerable difficulties in adjustment and coping which can severely compromise patients' quality of life. While chronic diseases do kill, most people diagnosed with a chronic illness will live for many years with their condition. Understanding and improving the process of coping with a chronic illness has become an important area of health care.

Adjustments required

The initial psychological adjustments following the diagnosis of a chronic disease generally involve issues related to a loss of function. Individuals at the stage of diagnosis confront the reality that their state of health and function of their body have changed, and are likely to remain impaired. The speed with which individuals confront this loss can be strongly influenced by the nature of the illness. With some chronic illnesses, such as heart disease which is diagnosed following a myocardial infarction, awareness of the presence of the disease is usually sudden. In other chronic illnesses, such as arthritis, the patient may be aware of their disease long before a formal diagnosis is made.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 46 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akimoto, M., Fukunishi, I., Kanno, K.et al. (2004). Psychosocial predictors or relapse among diabetes patients: a 2-year follow-up after inpatient diabetes education. Psychosomatics, 45, 343–49.Google Scholar
Anderson, R. M., Arnold, M. S., Funnell, M. M.et al. (1995). Patient empowerment: results of a randomized controlled trial. Diabetes Care, 18, 943–49.Google Scholar
Antoni, M. H., Lehman, J. M., Kilbourn, K. M.et al. (2001). Cognitive–behavioral stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 20, 20–32.Google Scholar
Broadbent, E., Petrie, K. J., Ellis, C. J., Ying, J. & Gamble, G. (2004) A picture of health – myocardial infarction patients' drawings of their hearts and subsequent disability: a longitudinal study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 583–7.Google Scholar
Carver, C. S., Pozo, C., Harris, S. D.et al. (1993). How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: a study of women with early stage breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 375–90.Google Scholar
Carver, C. S. & Antoni, M. H. (2004). Finding benefit in breast cancer during the year after diagnosis predicts better adjustment 5 to 8 years after diagnosis. Health Psychology, 23, 595–8.Google Scholar
Case, R. B., Moss, A. J., Case, N., McDermott, M. & Eberly, S. (1992). Living alone After myocardial infarction: impact on prognosis. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 267, 515–19.Google Scholar
Chesney, M. A., Chambers, D. B., Taylor, J. M., Johnson, L. M. & Folkman, S. (2003). Coping effectiveness training for men living with HIV: results from a randomized clinical trial testing a group-based intervention. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 1038–46.Google Scholar
Cohen, F., Reese, L. B., Kaplan, G. A. & Roggio, R. E. (1986). Coping with the stresses of arthritis. In Moskowitz, R. W. & Haug, M. R. (Eds.). Arthritis in the elderly. New York: Springer.
Cooper, A., Lloyd, G., Weinman, J. & Jackson, G. (1999). Why patients do not attend cardiac rehabilitation: role of intentions and illness beliefs. Heart, 82, 234–6.Google Scholar
Coyne, J. C. & Bolger, N. (1990). Doing without social support as an explanatory concept. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 148–58.Google Scholar
Dakof, G. A. & Taylor, S. E. (1990). Victims perceptions of social support: what is helpful from whom?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 80–9.Google Scholar
Dimond, M. (1979). Social support and adaptation to chronic illness: the case of maintenance hemodialysis. Research in Nursing and Health, 2, 101–8.Google Scholar
Donaldson, L. (2003). Expert patients usher in a new era of opportunity for the NHS. British Medical Journal, 326, 1279–80.Google Scholar
Dunkel-Schetter, C., Feinstein, L. G., Taylor, S. E. & Falke, R. L. (1992). Patterns of coping with cancer. Health Psychology, 11, 79–87.Google Scholar
Felton, B. J., Revenson, T. A. & Hinrichsen, G. A. (1984). Stress and coping in the explanation of psychological adjustment among chronically ill adults. Social Science and Medicine, 18, 889–98.Google Scholar
Fleishman, J. A., Sherbourne, C. D., Crystal, S.et al. (2000). Coping, conflictual social interactions, social support, and mood among HIV-infected persons. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 421–53.Google Scholar
Folkman, S., Chesney, M., Pollack, L. & Coates, T. (1993). Stress, control, and depressive mood in human immunodeficiency virus-positive and -negative gay men in San Francisco. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181, 409–16.Google Scholar
Garrity, T. F. (1973). Vocational adjustment after first myocardial infarction: comparative assessment of several variables suggested in the literature. Social Science and Medicine, 7, 705–17.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
Leventhal, H., Meyer, D. & Nerertz, D. (1980). The common–sense representations of illness danger. In Rachman, S. (Ed.). Medical psychology 2 (pp. 7–30). New York: Guilford Press.
Lorig, K. R., Sobel, D. S., Stewart, A. L.et al. (1999). Evidence suggesting that a chronic disease self-management program can improve health status while reducing hospitalization: a randomized trial. Medical Care, 37, 5–14.Google Scholar
Penedo, F. J., Dahn, J. R., Molton, I.et al. (2004). Cognitive-behavioral stress management improves stress-management skills and quality of life in men recovering from treatment of prostate carcinoma. Cancer, 100(1), 192–200.Google Scholar
Petrie, K. J., Weinman, J., Sharpe, N. & Buckley, J. (1996). Role of patients' view of their illness in predicting return to work and functioning after myocardial infarction: a longitudinal study. British Medical Journal, 312, 1191–4.Google Scholar
Sears, S. R., Stanton, A. L. & Danoff-Burg, S. (2003). The yellow brick road and the emerald city: benefit finding, positive appraisal coping and posttraumatic growth in women with early-stage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 22, 487–97.Google Scholar
Schnittker, J. (2005). Chronic illness and depressive symptoms in late life. Social Science and Medicine, 60, 13–23.Google Scholar
Sherbourne, C. D., Meredith, L. S., Rogers, W. & Ware, J. E. (1992). Social support and stressful life events: age differences in their effects on health-related quality of life among the chronically ill. Quality of Life Research, 1, 235–46.Google Scholar
Waxler-Morrison, N., Hislop, T. G., Mears, B. & Can, L. (1991). The effects of social relationships on survival with women with breast cancer: a prospective study. Social Science and Medicine, 33, 177–83.Google Scholar
Weinman, J., Petrie, K. J.Moss–Morris, R. E. & Horne, R. (1996). The illness perception questionnaire: a new method for assessing the cognitive representation of disease. Psychology and Health, 11, 431–45.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×