This study aimed to examine whether changes in the illness perceptions of oesophageal cancer survivors explain changes in their levels of psychological distress relative to demographic and biomedical variables and coping strategies. Oesophageal cancer survivors completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised, the Cancer Coping Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale...

BACKGROUND Research evidence shows that healthcare professionals do not fully comprehend the difficulty involved in problems faced by people living with severe mental illness (SMI). As a result, mental health service consumers do not show confidence in the healthcare system and healthcare professionals, a problem related to the phenomenon of adherence to therapy. Moreover, the issue of unmet ne...

This commentary on the stigmatization of people with mental illness explores social perceptions of them as dangerous and uncivilized. The authors discuss how the legal system suggests that these are people who should be ousted from the community while mental health professionals attempt to reiterate the fact that these individuals are simply human. The authors describe ways people with mental i...

Our aim was to study determinants of adherence in young asthmatic children over a 3-month period, including the role of parental illness and medication perceptions as determinants of adherence. Consecutive 2-6-yr-old children with asthma, using inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), followed-up at our paediatric asthma clinic (where patients are being extensively trained in self-management, and are fol...

Little is known about how the symptoms experienced by individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) affect family relationships. This study assessed the association between symptoms and patient perceptions of family relationships. The sample of 226 outpatient Veterans diagnosed with SMI, whose relatives had low contact rates with treatment staff, was enrolled in a study that used shared decisio...

OBJECTIVE To develop a model of consumer perceptions of electronic personal health records (PHRs) and validate it in a comparative study between consumers who report having a chronic illness and those who report being well. MATERIALS AND METHODS A model of PHR use motivators and barriers was built and tested through a national survey across Canada. Data were collected from 800 individuals, 18...

BACKGROUND Research is yet to investigate whether psychological interventions delivered early after diagnosis can benefit patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief self-regulatory intervention (targeting illness perceptions and coping) at improving HNC patient health-related quality of life (HRQL). METHODS A pilot...

Serious illness of a loved one can disrupt a caregiver’s sense of self and relationships. We examined the language caregivers use to describe the cancer treatment decision making of a loved one to understand how caregivers frame their own identity relative to a patient’s illness. We analyzed transcripts from in-depth interviews conducted with caregivers (N = 58) of cancer patients to examine th...