Providing Emotional Support for People with Chronic Diseases
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Psychology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1137
Special Issue Editors
Interests: adaptation; chronic disease; coping; emotional burden; emotional support; mental health; psychological distress; psychological intervention; psychological well-being; quality of life
Interests: methodology; psychometrics; quality of Life of patients with skin conditions; psychological distress; emotion dysregulation
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The management of life-long physical conditions can deeply affect mental health, psychological well-being, and quality of life and result in difficult adaptation. People suffering from a chronic disease could develop helplessness, discouragement, hopelessness, or mood disturbances, which, in turn, could worsen their medical prognosis. Moreover, since managing a chronic illness could impact the sense of self, especially when symptoms are painful or impair social and school/work functioning, difficulties in how these people cope with everyday life might arise. Finally, these medical conditions could also burden families or caregivers, with inevitable repercussions on the support received and the management of the chronic illness itself. Healthcare providers play an important role in supporting the mental and physical consequences of the chronic disease; however, their availability could be limited. Therefore, there is a need to implement effective interventions aimed at improving psychological distress deriving from a chronic medical condition, with a particular interest in those factors that might foster or hamper them, and the impact of those interventions on medium- and long-term prognosis.
This Special Issue aims to advance the understanding of how emotional support to people with chronic diseases might be provided. We are seeking articles enhancing knowledge on interventions addressing psychological distress, from the development, implementation, evaluation, and translation into practice, including factors that might underpin and affect long-term health conditions.
Dr. Sara Gostoli
Dr. Giulia Raimondi
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- adaptation
- chronic disease
- coping
- emotional burden
- emotional support
- mental health
- psychological distress
- psychological intervention
- psychological well-being
- quality of life
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