Cognition and the disease process: genesis, maintenance, and treatment.

The present paper is directed toward the conceptualization of disease states and their management from the cognitive point of view. The role of cognitive sytlesand self-statements in the pathogenesis of disease and the execution of coping styles is presented. A review of the literature on the cognitive treatment of medical disorders has documented the utility of such approaches with several medical problems, but a need for more rigorous empirical efficacy remains. The necessity of analyzing the coping processes elicited by specific disease states is viewed as essential to the understanding of the patient and the design of intervention strategies. Finally, a cognitive analysis of patient compliance to treatment regimens is presented.