Free Essay with the Article Review: Effects of Coping Strategies on Stress and Psychology

KL, Gloria & KH, Jen & Cox J, Szarowski & H, Hidetoshi & AH, Tzu. (2017). Coping Styles Effect on Stress and Psychological Well-being among Individuals with Chronic Pain. Journal of Depression and Anxiety. 07. 10.4172/2167-1044.1000295.

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According to Pizzo (2012), in America alone, 75 to 150 million people suffer injuries and illnesses that culminate in chronic pain. consequently, an estimated $560 to $635 billion has been recorded as an annual increment on the health cost due to economic losses that are associated with lowered productivity and losses of wages. The mentioned statics make the review of this article, on the effect of chronic pain coping styles on the patient's stress and psychological well-being, an important contribution to the knowledge regarding chronic pain and efficiency of the coping strategies.

While the effects of chronic pain such as anxiety, depression, loss of quality of life, depression among many other conditions have been widely studied and documented, few studied have focused on the multi-faceted nature of the resulting effects of chronic pain. This particular study takes unusual approach of investigating the effect of the widely adopted coping strategies, that is, negative coping, self-focused coping, existential coping and relational focused coping, to bring generate information on their psychological outcomes to the individual patients. The research paper is particularly important because it addresses the assumption that chronic pain interventions result to positive outcomes, most of the studies just citing anxiety and depression as the only negative outcomes, which is erroneous considering the fact that the subject involves complex variables that consequently lead to a wide range of negative and positive adjustment outcomes. The findings of this study, therefore, brings a new perspective on intervention methods and reliable framework to facilitate the choice of the most effective strategy to adopt.

On the methodology, the study had some limited participation criteria. A participant had to be of 19 years and older understand and read English and diagnosed with chronic pain through International Association for the Study of Pain framework. For the 94 participants of the study, the average age was established as 47.59 years half of them being married and 78% of the sample population recorded as Caucasians. The general conclusion from the composition of this study population is that the study neglected the age and race variable which could be interesting to explore the outcome behaviours.

The study approach adopted was questionnaire-based that incorporated two measurement scales of the main psychological variables established as the basis to judge the effect of coping strategies on the participant's well-being. The first variable was stress and the study employed Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) which consists of a 5-point Likert Scale of 0 representing never and 4 representing very often was used to measure the number of stressful life events of the respondent. The second variable was a combination of depression and anxiety and was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). HADS, unlike PSS, consists of a 4-point Likert Scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (very often indeed) and it was used to record data on this variable's occurrence in terms of subscale scores filled by the respondent. In both variables, the total quantitative scores recorded for each were used for data analysis and conclusion of the study. Additionally, to measure the respondent's choice of coping strategy, the authors employed COPE inventory which also consisted of 14 different coping strategies and Likert scale to enhance interpretation of the study results.

Based on a factor analysis of the 14 coping strategies included on COPE instrument, the 4-coping mechanism negative coping, self-focused coping, existential coping and relational focused coping were identified as the primary strategies to be used to base the study conclusion on. Regarding the actual effects of the identified coping mechanisms on the stress and psychological of the patients, the study discovered that not even one of the 4 strategies mediated anxiety. For depression, the only coping style that showed effectiveness in mediating the condition was negative coping, the rest did not help. Another interesting finding from the study was that anxiety and depression, contrary to the existing literature suggesting they are different, have a high correlation which is an important factor to note when recommending a coping strategy for the specialists.

The first strength of this research study is that it takes a complete new multi-dimensional perspective on the effects of mediating strategies and goes ahead to collect new data to explore it. Empirically, the study has generated findings to prove against common psychological constructs on the anxiety and depression. This only shows the independence of the study, which is an important attribute of a progressive research that yields new information on the subject of the study. Layout-wise, the authors have formatted the paper in a manner that progressively introduces the reader to the subject of the study, shows the current stance of the literature and finally shows what they intend and how to achieve it in addition to the use of easy-to-understand language.Furthermore, the study has gone into depth in analyzing their findings of the four coping strategies in regards to their effects, going back and forth to the literature to compare and conclude with their findings. This does not only expand the knowledge of these variables but also helps to develop analytical skills of the reader.

The study, however, has weaknesses. For instance, in the methodology section, the sample size and composition provoke limitation thoughts that the study has not addressed. On the study composition, the authors note that the majority of the participants were Caucasians from the middle class with only 16% of the study population coming from poor backgrounds. Considering Von and Daniel (2003) shows that there is a higher correlation between faith and economic status of the people, the findings of this study especially of the effect of existential coping which depends on the spirituality of participant could skew for not incorporating this factor in the study sample. Another weakness identified in the study sample is the age of the participants. There is no doubt that there is a correlation between psychological effects and the age of the patient experiencing chronic pain. However, even though the study findings can be concluded to be limited to the average age of the participants involved, the study fails to state that factor comment on the logic behind the average participants' age. Finally, on the sample size, the authors have recognized the study's limitation due to small sample size but they have not explained how this impacts on the validity of the study findings. Considering the above mentioned unaddressed issues, I agree with the study's conclusion that only some of the study findings can be clinically relevant.

This article review has recognized the significance of an in-depth knowledge regarding chronic pain and consequently dissected the research paper to show the neglected effects of multidimensional coping strategies on the psychological well-being of the patient. From the analysis of the study findings, it is clear that although self-focused coping, existential coping and relational focused coping did not report significance impact on anxiety and depression levels, negative coping showed a heightened detrimental impact on the two factors. The review however identified limitations to the study especially on the sample size and composition which could appreciably skew the findings and therefore it is important to consider these weaknesses when applying these findings in real clinical practice.

References

KL, Gloria & KH, Jen & Cox J, Szarowski & H, Hidetoshi & AH, Tzu. (2017). Coping Styles Effect on Stress and Psychological Well-being among Individuals with Chronic Pain. Journal of Depression and Anxiety. 07. 10.4172/2167-1044.1000295.

Pizzo, P. A., & Clark, N. M. (2012). Alleviating suffering 101-pain relief in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 366(3), 197-199.