title: Burns and adjustment to injury: do psychological coping strategies help?
abstract: The effects of teaching patients strategies for coping with the pain of an acute burn injury and its treatment were investigated. Twenty patients with comparable burn injuries and admitted to a Burn Center were randomly assigned to either a control or experimental group. Experimental patients received systematic instruction on how to cope with the pain and stress of burn injury; control patients received standard information and social support only. Results showed that experimental patients reported less pain and greater sense of psychological well-being and control over the outcome of their injuries than did control patients. Moreover, experimental patients went home, on the average, more than 1 week sooner than did control patients. The implications of these findings for the improved care of patients with burn injuries and the economics of burn care are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology