AI Article Synopsis

  • - The COVID-19 pandemic caused healthcare disruptions that affected chronically ill patients, leading to increased psychological stress and different coping strategies among them.
  • - A survey involving 398 patients with various chronic conditions revealed that most used problem-focused coping techniques, while self-blaming and avoidant coping were less common.
  • - Patients with neurological conditions, like multiple sclerosis, showed a riskier coping profile compared to those with kidney transplants, indicating a need for targeted mental health programs and early intervention for at-risk individuals.

Article Abstract

In many countries, the COVID-19 pandemic led to healthcare reorganization limiting access to diagnostic or therapeutic procedures for chronically-ill patients. In this article, we describe the psychological consequences and coping strategies of several groups of chronically-ill patients. During the cross-sectional survey conducted in 2020, we enrolled 398 patients with four different chronic conditions (psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and patients who have undergone a kidney transplant or received dialysis). The study sample was examined regarding the experienced stress levels (Perceived Stress Scale) and coping strategies (Brief-COPE). All four groups of patients most commonly declared using problem-focused coping strategies and least commonly reported the use of avoidant coping. Higher levels of perceived stress strongly correlated with self-blaming. The participants who declared previous psychiatric treatment or psychotherapy were more likely to use self-blaming, behavioral disengagement, substance use, and avoidant coping, while previous psychotherapy additionally correlated with emotion-focused coping. Group comparison identifies patients with a chronic neurological disease, such as multiple sclerosis, at higher risk of a less beneficial coping profile than kidney transplant recipients. Further focus on education and early interventions in at-risk individuals is needed, and widely targeted mental health programs are indicated in order to improve the mental health of patients suffering from chronic diseases.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10049622PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064814DOI Listing

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