Psychological Needs of Patients with Medical Conditions

Medical conditions can sometimes be accompanied by psychological symptoms that can cause negative health outcomes. Common psychological responses to medical conditions include stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and denial.

Stress is a common physical and psychological response to a challenging experience. When diagnosed with a medical condition, patients may think about the amount of pain they could experience due to their illness; they may wonder if the condition will affect their quality of life and relationships with others; or they might worry about being able to continue to work. How the patient responds to questions like these will shape their perception of their illness, which will then impact the amount of stress they experience.

Next is anxiety, which is apprehension about a stressful situation that causes feelings of fear, worry, and nervousness, as well as physical symptoms like breathlessness and palpitations.

When a medical condition is diagnosed, it’s often accompanied by experiences like waiting for test results or surgical procedures, which can increase anxiety due to loss of control and feelings of helplessness. Overwhelming anxiety can negatively influence a patient’s ability to cope and adapt to their medical condition and can lead to the use of unhealthy defense mechanisms or compulsive behaviors.

Now, depression is a persistent sadness or loss of interest in daily life. Depression can impact a patient’s course of illness by impairing their motivation or ability to adhere to the prescribed treatment regimen, and it can lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices, like not exercising, continuing to smoke, or indulging in an unhealthy diet.

Grief is a psychological response to a medical condition that occurs when a patient deals with the loss of their physical well-being. When experiencing grief, patients may feel confused, frustrated, sad, and vulnerable as they work toward reaching a sense of acceptance and peace.

Lastly, patients may also experience denial, which is an unconscious coping mechanism that’s sometimes used in response to a medical condition. Denial can manifest as a lack of interest in learning about their diagnosis, or by believing that a chronic condition is actually a temporary illness. As the condition continues to affect their daily life, they may either continue to distance themselves psychologically from their diagnosis or they may begin to adjust to their new reality and level of function.