Meaning making of illness by chronically ill patients : selected research results

W artykule przedstawione są wyniki badań nad tworzeniem znaczeń choroby przez pacjentów chorujących przewlekle na chorobę Leśniowskiego-Crohna. Cele badawcze to: oszacowanie obecności myśli dotyczących tworzenia znaczeń choroby oraz ich efekty; odkrycie związków pomiędzy procesami tworzenia znaczeń a poziomem adaptacji do choroby i stopniem zadowolenia z życia.A serious disease can mean a loss of aims and plans for the patient, which previously guided him through life. The use of cognitive-existential framework may help to explain the sources and enriching ways of coping. The study served three purposes. Assessing the presence of thoughts associated with the creation of meanings of the disease and their effects. Answering the question about the links between the meaning-making processes with the level of adaptation to illness and satisfaction with life. The analysis included test results from 63 patients treated for Crohn’s and Lesniowski’s disease. The study was correlation-comparative. In chronically ill patients, it was possible to recognize the presence of meaning-making processes of the disease and their effects. The study revealed the interdependencies between the multiple processes of thinking and the level of adaptation to chronic illness and quality of life. A chronic disease has two dimensions: biological and existential. Meaning-making of the disease can be an action which supports the patient’s pro-health efforts, arouses positive emotions, as well as being an indicator of the difficulty of placing the disease in the current course of lif