Mental Health and Environmental Coping Mechanisms of the Diabetic Patient and Implications on Hospitalization Duration

Abstract

Introduction. Mental health is a state of emotional, psychological and social well-being, where the individual manages to successfully manage daily life, valuing himself and others, while being socially integrated, happy and fulfilled.

Adaptability to the environment is the ability of the person or organism to adjust, to transform, according to the changes and demands of the environment. These skills require learning from experiences, finding creative solutions and developing the ability to cope with stressors. Integration into the environment requires constant personal development. Unfortunately, we live in times when the environment is changing at a speed that is difficult for the human body and psyche to manage and follow.

Material and method. In this study, part of a larger study, 80 diabetic patients aged between 19 and 70 years were included. The longitudinal research period was 2015-2022, following the number of days of hospitalization and the length of hospitalization for each hospitalization in “Sf. Ap. Andrei” Emergency Clinical Hospital Galati. The patients, in compliance with data protection and legislation in force, were administered a psychological questionnaire tracking their adaptability to the environment and their rational and irrational beliefs in relation to life. The data were centralized and analysed in the SPSS statistical software, looking for correlations between psychological aspects and hospitalization duration/frequency, assuming that patients with significant test results are patients suffering from diagnosed or not yet diagnosed psychosomatic disorders.

Conclusions. The results of the questionnaire and the anamnesis revealed that most of the patients had irrational beliefs and attitudes towards themselves, others and life, completely dysfunctional. Extrapolating that these patients also have psychosomatic disorders, we can state that the statistical results obtained predict that a person with psychosomatic disorders will have more frequent presentations to the doctor, while each hospitalization will be longer than that of patients with the same pathology, without associated psychosomatic disorders.

In this sense, both the correlations obtained and the linear regression with predictive value, force us to think in the long term and bring to light the need to implement a diagnostic tool at the disposal of the diabetologist, internist and emergency physician, for further collaboration with the psychiatric physician, all for the ultimate good of the patient.