This is the Chapter 17 of the book Introduction to Health Psychology (Val Morrison_ Paul Bennett) 4th Edition. Which is content for the exam of the component Health Psychology of Module 5 (Health Psychology & Applied Technology) of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands.

Ch.17: Health and quality of life

Coping chronic illness:

• Therapeutic approaches:
  • Providing relevant information
    • Types of info:
      • Nature of a disease and/or its treatment
      • How to cope with disease and/or its treatment
      • Change behaviour in order to reduce risk of disease progression
    • Educational programmes: help people to manage a disease or reduce risk of further disease --> sense of control over their illness
  • Stress management training
    
    • Problem solving: prevent or minimise external problems
    • Cognitive restructuring: to identify and challenge stress-provoking thoughts
    • Relaxation: to reduce the physiological arousal that forms part of the stress response.
  • Written emotional expression: writing technique write about upsetting incidents

Mindfulness:

• Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR): studies of the effectiveness --> patients coping better with their symptoms, improved overall well-being and quality of life, as well as improved health status

Social support:

Men who had experienced a radical prostatectomy benefited  from meeting with a fellow patient once a week to discuss any concerns they had and coping strategies they could use

• Group cohesiveness
• Information exchange
• Feelings of being in the same situation.
• Hope, catharsis and altruism

Managing Illness:

Info provision:

• Web-based health information sites provided by the American Heart Association: personalised report of ‘scientifically accurate’ treatment options, a list of questions to ask their doctor

Self-management training:

• Social cognition theory: teaching how to manage their illness in a way that maximises control over their symptoms and quality of life --> increased confidence and continued application of new skills
  • Structured progressive: ensures success at each stage before progression
• ‘One size fits all’ approach: tailored programmes that provide a number of modules that participants can select according to their particular needs
• ‘Intensified functional insulin therapy’: intervention involve educational component --> how factors such as additional exercise and eating meals (varying levels of carbohydrate) influence their blood sugar levels
• Heart Manual: programmes that have translated key elements of the self-management process into written or computer-based form

Stress management training:

• Episodes of angina: triggered by emotional as well as by physical stresses --> such interventions reduce the frequency of angina
  • Performed better on a standardised exercise known as a treadmill test: of cardiovascular fitness, gradually increase the level of exercise on a treadmill while having their heart monitored

Social and family support:

• Programmes involved peers helping patients cope with chronic conditions.
  • Reporting better health status, health behaviours and more confidence in their ability to manage their condition than control group
  • Less diabetes-related conflict when friend’s support of patient’s diabetes care behaviour

Emotional expression:

• Pennebaker in the 1980s psychological effects of a writing task: reported short-term increases in depression or distress, but in the mid to long term experienced better mood and better physical health

1. Find place where you will not be disturbed
2. Minimum of three days and a minimum of 15 minutes a day.
3. “Let go and write about your very deepest thoughts and feelings”
4. Your writing is for you and you alone.
5. Be your own experimenter --> see which approach to writing works best for you

• Stanton et al. (2002b): study evaluating effectiveness of the written emotional expression. Assigned participants to:
  • Emotional expression condition: their deepest thoughts and feelings regarding breast cancer
  • Neutral task: positive thoughts and feelings regarding breast cancer or  facts about their experience of having breast cancer
  • Emotional expression seemed to be of more benefit

Preventing disease progression:

• Counselling: attempt to prevent disease, mixed results
• Stress management training: often combined them with education and some form of exercise programme: element of most cardiac rehabilitation --> progressive increase in exercise
  
  • ENRICHD study (Berkman et al. 2003): cardiac rehabilitation --> result in lower levels of depression/no differences in survival between the two groups
    
    • Depression does not appear to result in health gains in cardiac patients, but treating anxiety in patients with immune-system-mediated diseases does:
      
      • Stress management may slow down the disease progress and reduce risk of opportunistic infections