Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of great variety and ambiguity. It outcome is both multidimensional and uncertain. As part of an ongoing effort to describe and differentiate the various courses that MS can follow, 81 out-patients diagnosed with MS completed the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) administered as a structured interview. Descriptive statistics for the SIP and the CPI are provided and examined as a function of age and sex. Correlations between health status and personality scales are reported. Increasing physical dysfunction is associated with lowered performance on a broad array of psychosocial dimensions but only among women. A cluster analysis of CPI factor scores is described and a very tentative typology of persons with MS is offered for further investigation.
We assert that psychologists have an important role to play in the care of the chronically ill, and that it is possible to construct programs that are workable, useful to patients, and of mutual interest to psychologists and physicians in the health care setting. We describe a program of psychological services in a multiple sclerosis center. These services are built on a theoretical model of coping, directed at education in a broad sense and at peer contact and support. We describe a program of group discussions for patients and family, conceptualized as reference groups for the learning of a new life style with a different set of values. We also discuss factors of critical importance in the success of this particular model of care, and we suggest that psychologists must carefully consider political, financial, and organizational realities in their attempts to structure programs in the primary health care settings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.