Coping and psoriasis - a framework for targeted intervention

Background: Dermatological patients often suffer from psycho-social problems in relation to their disease. These problems may affect the outcome of the treatment and should therefore be dealt with in an appropriate way. A framework suitable for the analysis of psycho-social problems of disease exists in psychological literature, and can be applied to dermatological patients in particular. Methods: Examples of qualitative analysis are presented. The examples are based on focused, semi-structured interviews transcribed into case stories. Four patients with long-standing psoriasis vulgaris were studied. Results: The coping strategies used by patients are identified using the proposed framework. The cases show that minimising is a much used strategy by patients with psoriasis. The underlying mechanisms are analysed. The analysis can serve as background for additional psycho-social intervention on the key points of Appraisal and Sense of Coherence, which are the processes of recognising the personal significance of situations and the ability to understand the significance of a given situation in a meaningful way. Conclusion: The presented model of coping is simple and allows rational and explicit identification of the required mode of psychological intervention necessary in order to offer the best possible help to patients.