Frustration: A Challenge in Chronic Conditions

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Many people live their lives with chronic conditions. Eighty percent of people who seek medical treatments suffer from chronic diseases (1). In USA 26% of adults have more than one chronic condition such as arthritis, hy-pertension, and diabetes (2). Many times patients have persistent or recurrent pain (chronic non-cancer pain) which make the condition worse. Chronic non-cancer pain causes significant morbidity, interfering with a pa-tient's ability to perform activities of daily living, family life, and employment, and is in associate with significant psychological stress (3).Chronic conditions effect patients , their families, communities and health systems. Sometimes patients and their families are facing continual and perdurable struggle to control the disease or its complications (4). Frustration might be a result of these continuous and endless struggles. Heart failure is also amongst one of the most disturbing chronic conditions with different consequences. In this issue Ghanbari et al. have presented result of a study on cognitive functions of heart failure patients. These patients are in the risk of frustration (5). Frustration is a complex emotion and its effects are huge. Sources of frustration include interference with everyday activities, the interruption of life goals and roles and the unpredictability of pain (6). Frustration can have many negative consequences. Sometimes patients stop their self-care activities or even stop their essential prescription. Many times frustration ends up to depression and a deep feeling of anger. People may lose their interest in life. I have heard many times from patients that they prefer to die then continuing their current situation. Patients need more support during these hard times. Nurses can be a source of support for these patients. How can we help these patients? First, patients should feel our supportive presence (7). We should identify the frustration and its causes. Patients should feel that we are beside them not in front of them. We should never blame patients for their non-compliance behaviors but we should understand their reactions and see what we can do. Second, patient should feel that they are in good hands and under best possible treatments. Maybe we should go to details of patients' management. The physicians should be available easily. The difficulty of getting prescription medications and lack of continuity of care make the patients more frustrated (8). Third, the peer supported groups can be …