Criteria of psychological health of adolescents with orthopedic diseases

Abstract

Introduction. The task of preserving the psychological health of children and adolescents is recognized as most important in the complex conditions of the modern world. Interdisciplinary research addresses the psychological aspects of mental health. For psychological health, understanding the highest level of mental health is an integral characteristic of the well-being of the individual, and the prerequisites for the development of personal maturity. Among the adverse factors in relation to mental and psychological health is what is known as somatic suffering, which occurs in orthopedic diseases. Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to orthopedic disease, eliminating maladaptive manifestations in difficult life situations due to the disease, can be important indicators of psychological health of adolescents. Aim. We identify specific indicators of psychological health in adolescents with various orthopedic diseases. Materials and methods. The study involved 90 adolescents: 60 aged 12–17 years with orthopedic diseases (30 with articular juvenile chronic arthritis and 30 with long-term consequences of mechanical trauma of the upper and lower limbs, resulting from an accident due to negligence) and a control group consisting of healthy adolescents of the same age. The characteristics of the self-esteem personality component (satisfaction with various aspects of their own lives) in adolescents with orthopedic diseases and their healthy peers were considered traditional indicators of psychological health. We used Piers–Harris scale modified by V.I. Gordeev Y.S. Aleksandrovich and test of attitude to disease. Results. In adolescents with various forms of orthopedic disorders, the formation of stable variants of the attitude to the disease with a violation of adaptation of inter- and intrapsychic types is accompanied by the experience of discomfort, difficulties of self-regulation during treatment, and signs of a negative attitude. Formation of stable variants of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses without expressed disorders of mental and social adaptation is accompanied by a feeling of comfort and self-satisfaction. The prevailing reaction at harmonic, allopathic, and anosognosic types of mogutt act as a sanogenic effect. Emerging resistant variants of the attitude to the disease with a violation of adaptation of inter- and intrapsychic types can represent risk factors for breach of psychological health in adolescents with orthopedic diseases.