Background
Psychology plays a vital role in society, specifically, on how a person thinks, reacts or responds to situations. In regards to health or illness, the study of psychology notes that illness is influenced by some factors, these may include behavioral, hereditary and psychological (Smyth et al., 2014). Thus, the study of psychology on health and illness, also known as health psychology is of paramount importance. For health professionals, an understanding of health psychology is beneficial in that, it encourages medics to treat the disease in broader perspective so as to eliminate all factors that may have caused the disease or have the potential to cause the disease.
One of the hereditary diseases that affect a large number of people is Cystic Fibrosis. It originated from a mutation in genes of the body and transmitted to offspring from parents. In modern times, just like in the past, there is no known cure for the disease despite ongoing and thorough medical research (Ramsey et al., 2011).
In this paper, however, it is an elaboration of mental health and cystic fibrosis. In addition to that, the paper seeks to highlight some of the challenges that families go through in having a patient or member with cystic fibrosis. The paper will demonstrate the importance of health professional in understanding how people think, behave and feel about the topic under discussion.
The two have relations in that, cystic fibrosis can and often affect emotion, mood, and temperament of a person. Medics believe that mental health is one of the most important parts of health. In regards to Cystic Fibrosis, medics often put into consideration breathing, eating habits and the interval of taking medications for patients suffering from the condition (Sawicki, & Tiddens, 2012). Scientific evidence shows that people suffering from chronic illnesses often experience depression and anxiety. The study also reveals that people suffering from Cystic Fibrosis suffer from depression.
Depression affects adults as well as adolescents suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. However, with a good support network, depression may improve to a level that is no longer a problem to manage. In the absence of good support network, it is possible for the symptoms of depression to prolong for a long time, resulting to sadness and self-doubt (Quittner et al., 2014). For medics and caregivers, there are various ways to identify depression in patients suffering from Cystic Fibrosis; these are a loss of energy, changes in weight, hopelessness, and guilt, inability to concentrate and loss of interest. In addition to those, the patients may also portray decreased activity and have suicidal thoughts.
Mental Health and Cystic Fibrosis
Anxiety is another mental problem that people suffering from Cystic Fibrosis experience. People experiencing anxiety often demonstrate worry that may present itself as agitation or nervousness. It is a condition that most patients will experience, however, a prolonged condition of anxiety will result in behavioral changes. Health psychology can help medics to treat patients by taking into consideration all the factors that cause the disease (MacKenzie et al., 2014). Medics and care givers are advised to look at irritability, difficulties in concentrating, sleep disturbance and restlessness in patients suffering from Cystic Fibrosis to determine anxiety.
Having a child or family member with Cystic Fibrosis is often a challenge because among other reasons, is a terminal illness, which suggests that taking care of the patient is a lifetime task. Families having one of their members or child suffering from Cystic Fibrosis experience depression (Quittner et al., 2016). This is common among close family members. Research carried out in 2015 regarding the disease indicates that parents, father, and mother often suffer from depression. However, depression rate is higher in mothers at 56.4 percent than fathers at 41.9 percent (Elborn et al., 2015). In addition to that, it is always a challenge to cater and pay the medical bills. A lifetime medical bill and treatment may prove to be expensive and sometimes annoying. On the other hand, research indicates that mothers often face denial and try for ways to treat the child for the illness completely even though there are no such cures. In the long term, it leaves the mother with anger and sometimes hostility towards the child or to herself either directly or indirectly causing the illness. Lastly, it is always a challenge to dedicate so much time to taking care of the family member suffering from the illness (Sly et al., 2013). It can sometimes be unbearable especially for parents with other tasks that need to be looked into as well.
There are a lot of benefits in understanding psychological response to illness in as much as illness is concerned, for the health professional in many aspects. To start with a psychological response, it derives their mechanism by trying to find solutions to the following; the cause of illness and the agent responsible for the same. Additionally, there is the manner in which the illness ought to be treated and who should take charge and lastly, the role it plays in illness and general health (Ryff, 2014). Unlike medics who look at a shallow response to illness, specifically, by looking at the symptoms, the type of the disease and the proper medical treatment, psychological response embraces integrating various factors that revolve around the illness. They include but are not limited to biological like viruses, social like employment and psychological like behaviors and beliefs.
Impact on Families
According to psychologists, illness is a combination of various factors, and it will not be prudent to treat a patient as a victim of one agent such as virus or bacteria. Psychologists suggest that health professionals ought to look at other factors that are leading to the cause of illness (Jetten, Haslam, & Alexander, 2012). For instance, acknowledging the effects that behaviors play, for instance, diet and smoking, this will bring out the notion that patients can be held responsible for causing the illness. Thus, it is important to treat the whole patient, not like medics do in treating the physical condition of illness (Aldwin, & Gilmer, 2013). The method encourages medics to take into consideration behavior and changes in beliefs in treating patients.
Therefore, psychological response to illness is taking illness in a continuum manner. In that, illness is a continuance process that can occur again and again. In addition to that, psychological response to illness subscribe to the notion that the body and the mind interact. Additionally, they respond to psychological factors as both agents of illness and enhancing all stages of the state of health of an individual, that is, from healthiness to when one is ill (Jetten, Haslam, & Alexander, 2012).
Health professional, say a doctor, can borrow a lot from psychology, especially, how to respond to illness. Firstly, future doctors, as well as modern ones, can implement an integrated approach to deal with patients suffering from diseases (Hunink et al., 2014). It will include all the factors that contribute to illness so that once a patient is treated; the chances of him or her becoming ill from the same illness are minimal (Ryff, 2014). Doctors can think of behaviors of patients, the environment that he or she is in, the habits and even the lifestyle. Thus, it is in this respect that a doctor needs to understand how the patient behaves. A study conducted on physical habits on patients who have cancer demonstrated a decrease in depression among the patients (Jetten, Haslam, & Alexander, 2012). Thus, as doctors, and other health professionals, the psychological approach to diseases appears to be crucial not only in looking at the disease from a broader perspective but also in coming up with a treatment program that makes it difficult for the patient to fall ill again.
Conclusion
Thus, understanding the concepts of psychology is essential to health and for a health professional. In addition to that, there are many ways that diseases affect the wellbeing of a person and the people around. In this paper, Cystic Fibrosis has been used as an example. Additionally, it is clear that some of the symptoms that people suffering from the disease portray include anxiety and depression. The effects are in regards to the mental health of people suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. On the other hand, it is clear that family members suffer most when they have a child or one of their members with the condition. The effects of this can range from paying medical bills to the amount of time taken to cater for the patients among other challenges. Lastly, psychological approach to illness is relevant to doctors and other health professional in coming up with an integrated approach of looking at the disease as a whole and through, devising mechanism that treat patients in a manner that there is a minimal reoccurrence of the disease. It is here that the medics have to think and analyze the behavior of clients about the disease.
The Importance of Psychological Approach to Illness
References
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