title: Strategies for coping with pain presented by adolescents with hematopoietic malignancies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Leukaemias and lymphomas are the most common malignant diseases diagnosed among adolescents and they are associated with pain and anxiety. As a result they may affect the way patients accept their disease and determine subjective assessment of quality of life. The objective of this study was to recognise strategies for coping with pain, evaluate the process of accepting the disease and assess quality of life among adolescents diagnosed with hematopoietic malignancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group comprised 66 patients aged between 14 and 21 and diagnosed with leukaemia or lymphoma. The following measuring tools were used: the Pain Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS), and WHOQOL-BREF for quality of life evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Coping self-statements and praying or hoping were the two most common strategies used by our respondents when coping with pain. In the study group the level of anxiety had no influence on pain control and the ability to reduce it. A statistically significant relation was found between the level of catastrophizing as a method of coping with pain and quality of life in the physical domain. An additional correlation was observed between quality of life in the psychological domain and the level of pain control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ability of coping with pain promotes the acceptance of illness and improves patient's quality of life. The age and duration of the disease were factors affecting strategies for coping with pain. A small percentage of respondents who experienced anxiety suggests that further and deeper research is needed in this field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland. grazyna.cepuch@uj.edu.pl
authors.forename: Grazyna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cepuch
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wojnar-Gruszka
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kowalczyk
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult