Emotional distress and coping in the early stage of recovery following acute traumatic hand injury: a questionnaire survey.

BACKGROUND

Emotional distress is frequent in patients with acute traumatic hand injury during the first weeks after the accident. Knowledge of coping in relation to emotional distress could help to identify those who need support.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the different kinds of coping used by patients in the early stage of recovery following an acute traumatic hand injury and to investigate differences in coping patterns in patients with and without symptoms of emotional distress.

DESIGN

Questionnaire survey with a descriptive and comparative design.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A total of 112 patients with acute traumatic hand injury requiring inpatient treatment at the hand surgical clinic. Those with injuries caused by a suicide attempt or with known drug abuse were excluded. Method/main outcome measures: The patients answered a postal questionnaire at home 1-2 weeks after the accident. Emotional distress was assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Coping was measured with the Jalowiec Coping Scale-40.

RESULTS

Coping by "trying to keep the situation under control" and "trying to look at the problems objectively and see all sides" were most frequent. These strategies are typical for the confrontive coping style, which dominated in the actual illness-situation. Symptoms of emotional distress occurred in 32% of the patients. These patients used significantly more kinds of coping strategies and used confrontive and emotive coping strategies more often than the others. Coping by "hoping for improvement", "working tension off with physical activity", "trying to put the problem out of one's mind", "worrying", "getting nervous or angry" and "taking off by one self" were associated with emotional distress. Coping by "accepting the situation as it is" and "thinking that it is nothing to worry about" were more frequent in patients without emotional distress.

CONCLUSIONS

Observations of the coping strategies associated with emotional distress in this study could help to identify patients in clinical practice that need nursing support. Coping associated with less emotional distress should be encouraged.