The Management of Chronic Illness

Running Head : Management of Chronic Illness

Management of Chronic Illness

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Introduction

Chronic illness often seems to instigate suddenly , and the course of illness is long and impulsive . Numerous chronic illnesses and disable conditions are characterized by an indefinitely long plateau rather than rapidly progressive corrosion

Depression may be reactive , or psychological , in origin , arising in response to several life event or loss , or it may be endogenous , or internal , in origin , arising as a by-product of some fundamental metabolic disturbance or disease process . This

distinction is sometimes distorted in clinical practice . For instance , according to the biological , or medical , model , the depression often present in the early stages of Alzheimer 's disease is a result of altered brain chemistry caused by the disease process itself , whilst according to the psychological model , the depression is a function of the individual 's awareness of his or her incapability to function normally and a sense that something is terribly wrong (Lancaster 1984

There can be few adults that have not heard of depression and even fewer that have not experienced times when they have felt low in mood . Yet , in spite of its commonalty , depression is a phenomenon that defies simple definition . This is mostly because it spans a continuum that ranges from a normal and transient response to events involving personal disappointment and loss , through to an abnormal mood dis that may lack an obvious cause and which may need prolonged psychological or medical intervention (Davidson and Neale 1994

Likewise , the symptoms of depression can vary distinctly , and range from a mild and transient state of `the blues ' to a persistent and disabling condition that pervades all aspects of the individual 's emotional cognitive and behavioral functioning . This latter form is normally labeled clinical depression , and it is estimated that around twelve in every hundred people will experience at least one episode of depression throughout their life time that is serious enough to warrant this label and some form of professional help (Cromer 1996

Of course , it is feasible that depression might result as an interaction of both psychological and physiological processes , and it is hence wise to bear this in mind when dealing with any depressed patient who is known to have some fundamental organic condition

Symptoms

Clinical depression has symptoms that tend to occur together . But these symptoms are themselves very diverse . They include emotional changes such as feelings of sadness often referred to as `dysphoria , the opposite of euphoria cognitive changes such as low self-esteem , guilt rumination , memory and concentration difficulties behavioral changes such as agitation or retardation , reduced engagement in social or recreational activities and bodily changes such as sleep , eating and sexual problems , aches and pains , loss of energy . Other symptoms are excluded because , although they very commonly occur in depression , they also occur when a person has other psychological problems . For example `avoidance ' occurs in phobias , and `ruminations ' occur in obsessions `passivity ' occurs in schizophrenia and `irritability ' occurs in mania Most methods...