Veronica Robert, Catalina Alvarez and Fernanda Valdivieso
Clinica Las Condes, Chile
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Transl Med
Nowadays, we face a world with a technologic environment changing and advancing constantly, which, in the oncologic scope, implies more advanced investigations and therapies, observing a constant evolution in the management and symptomatic control of the oncologic illness. This scenario implies a higher frequency of patients who suffer its consequences within a short, medium or long time limit, involving permanent adaptation processes. It was already by the mid of the past century that the psychooncology subspecialty arises so as to ameliorate the psychosocial adjustment, the oncologic person has to suffer from its multiple effects. Cancer illness considers an impact that transcends not only physical shock but also an emotional process, considering the person as a whole, with personal, familiar and environmental aspects, allowing us to see this illness from a biopsychosocial view. An affective climate is generated creating a complex questioning and deep changes in the various contexts where the patient is set in. The fact of losing what is most important as health, with all its consequences, the person experiences the oncologic mourning. Is this the way how the patient confronts the disease and his/her environment? The distress experience within the process of this illness can bring out negative effects for the patient�s health and quality of life. Moreover, the developing of psychiatric disorders is more frequent in oncologic patients than in patients who do not suffer this illness. The major vulnerability of the oncology patients to develop a psychiatric disease is an important issue the medical staff has to take into account, so they require special care and be aware of this patient�s emotional needs. In the present article, an interventional model is presented and supported by the emotional aspects studied in the oncologic patient. Relevant aspects are presented and developed the patient�s general evaluation, an emotional support structure and the required interventions to fulfill the aims of it.
Email: vrobert@clinicalascondes.cl
