Maastricht University. Netherlands: People who are recovering from a stroke or other
acquired brain injury (ABI) achieve a higher quality of life when they
have a lot of confidence in their own ability to deal with the new
situation (self-efficacy). The expression of negative emotions
(emotion-focused coping) also has a predictive value: patients who do
this often have a lower quality of life in the longer term.
Because
self-efficacy can be increased with treatment, according to PhD
candidate Ingrid Brands, it is important to screen people for these
factors immediately after the development of a brain injury. The
rehabilitation physician defended her dissertation on Friday, 23 January
at Maastricht University.
The value of self-efficacy has not been investigated much for people with ABI, and that makes this study innovative. ‘Clinical guidelines for rehabilitation after a stroke, for example, should pay more attention to psychosocial aspects and personal characteristics’, argues Ingrid Brands, who has been working as a rehabilitation specialist at Libra Rehabilitation & Audiology in Blixembosch since 1998. She hopes to obtain funding for further research, in which a trial study can be conducted to confirm these results. Almost 150 patients participated in this study. They scored their own quality of life immediately following the brain injury and a year later. Every year in the Netherlands, approximately 130,000 people deal with the effects from an acquired brain injury (about 40,000 of these from a stroke).
Feedback
Self-efficacy can be increased through skills training, constructive comparison with peers, verbal feedback and, for instance, learning to deal with stress and fatigue. ‘Developing the self-efficacy of the patient sometimes happens implicitly, but it is not yet standard in treatment. It is an area where there is much to be gained’, said the rehabilitation physician who sees every day in practice how the mind and body are one. ‘How people function is strongly influenced by their expectations and their way of dealing with problems.’
The entire dissertation of Ingrid Brands, entitled ‘The adaptation process after acquired brain injury. Pieces of the puzzle’, can be downloaded at http://issuu.com/gildeprintdrukkerijen/docs/proefschrift_brands/1
The defence will take place on Friday, 23 January at Maastricht University, at 12.00.