title: Patients with terminal chronic liver pathology faced with this disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  "Anxious preoccupation" is a maladaptive coping strategy for patients with terminal chronic liver pathology causing psychopathologic emotional responses. The aim of this study was to identify "anxious preoccupation" as a coping strategy when faced with this disease and to investigate its relationship with emotional-type psychopathologic symptoms in patients awaiting a liver transplant (LT).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 63 patients awaiting an LT were evaluated. The instrument used to evaluate coping style was the Mental Adjustment to Cancer questionnaire. One of the coping scales of this questionnaire is "anxious preoccupation" (9 items). An Instrument for psychopathologic assessment was used, the SA-45 questionnaire, which assessed 9 psychopathologic dimensions: somatizations, obsessions-compulsions, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism.
  
  
  RESULTS
  "Anxious preoccupation" was used as an inadequate coping style by 51% of patients when faced with the disease. Five psychopathologic dimensions were associated with this coping strategy: 1) obsessive-compulsivity: 75% of patients with "anxious preoccupation" had obsessive-compulsivity symptoms compared with 29% of patients with other coping strategies (P < .001); 2) interpersonal sensitivity: 25% vs 6%, respectively (P = .044); 3) depression: 59% vs 29% (P = .015); 4) anxiety: 75% vs 32% (P = .001); and 5) phobic anxiety: 19% vs 3% (P = .050).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More than one-half of the patients on the LT waiting list used "anxious preoccupation" as a coping style for this disease. This strategy was associated with a greater presence of emotional-type psychopathologic symptoms in these patients.
authors: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of San Antonio, Murcia, Spain; International Collaborative Donor Project, Murcia, Spain; Regional Transplant Center, Consejería de Sanidad y Consumo de la Región de Murcia, Murcia, Spain; Transplant Unit, General Surgery, Virgen de la Arrixaca Universitary Hospital, Murcia, Spain.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: López-Navas
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Ríos
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Martínez-Alarcón
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Febrero
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Pons
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Miras
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Ramis
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Ramírez
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Parrilla
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014850:Waiting Lists