Thesis
Social and psychological factors affecting the impact of painful chronic illness upon mental health
- Abstract:
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This thesis is a report of a study on patients suffering one of two painful chronic illnesses (rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or migraine), and attempts to discover possible determinants of psychological reactions to long term painful illness.
One hundred and sixty chronically ill individuals were interviewed, (80 migraine and 80 RA sufferers). In keeping with other evidence, the extent of psychological disturbance was found to be higher for chronically ill individuals than for general population samples. There were no zero order correlations between reported pain and psychological distress. Age and length of suffering have often been cited as possible factors influencing mood state, but no evidence was found for this in the data gained in this survey.
The results provide no evidence for the use of coping strategies as a method of adapting to the demands of the painful chronic illnesses studied here. Beliefs in control over illness have been posited as possible factors that may influence psychological state, and were measured in this research using a health locus of control scale. However locus of control scores were not found to be associated with mood state, although, in keeping with other research, scores were found to be associated with age and social class, with both lower social class and older sufferers scoring higher on externality than those from higher social classes, or whom were younger.
The strongest association was found between aspects of subjective health status and mood state. The major finding of this study is that patients assessment of their own health state, in both illnesses, is the major factor associated with psychological state.
Actions
- Publication date:
- 1989
- DOI:
- Type of award:
- DPhil
- Level of award:
- Doctoral
- Awarding institution:
- University of Oxford
- Language:
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English
- Subjects:
- UUID:
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uuid:2c6e33c7-4931-435c-bd60-d3958866087a
- Local pid:
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td:603849241
- Source identifiers:
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603849241
- Deposit date:
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2013-01-18
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Jenkinson, C
- Copyright date:
- 1989
- Notes:
- The digital copy of this thesis has been made available thanks to the generosity of Dr Leonard Polonsky
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