title: Psychosocial adjustment following burns: An integrative literature review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Burn care innovations have vastly reduced mortality rates and improved prognoses, fostering the need for multi-disciplinary input in holistic recovery. Consequently psychological and social considerations post-burn are included in National Burn Care Standards and have featured increasingly in burns literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the key findings of the rapidly expanding literature base for psychosocial adjustment post-burn, highlighting the most important knowledge and future directions for both practice and research.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, BNI, HMIC databases were searched from January 2003 to September 2013 using search terms regarding psychosocial adjustment post-burn. After exclusions 24 papers underwent critical appraisal.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Studies were categorised by the element of adjustment that they examined; psychopathology, quality of life, return to work, interpersonal, post-traumatic growth. Strengths, weaknesses, and significant findings within each category were presented.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although psychopathology and quality of life were well-researched compared to other categories, all would benefit from methodological improvements such as sample size or dropout rates. Coping strategies, premorbid psychopathology, and personality consistently featured as predictors of adjustment, although research should now move from identifying predictors, to clarifying the concept and parameters of psychosocial adjustment while developing and evaluating interventions to improve outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Burns Unit, Ward 11, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Mandeville Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP21 8AL, UK. Electronic address: chrisatts@aol.com.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Attoe
authors.affiliation: Burns Unit and National Spinal Injuries Centre, Department of Clinical Psychology, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Mandeville Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP21 8AL, UK. Electronic address: Liz.poundscornish@buckshealthcare.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pounds-Cornish
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002056:Burns / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Adjustment; Burns; Postburn; Psychological; Psychosocial