Going It Alone Counterproductive
for Diabetics
Excerpt By Charnicia E. Huggins, Reuter's Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with diabetes who have an "I don't need anyone to help me" attitude may fare worse over time because of their poor adjustment to the disease, new study findings suggest.

Previous research has indicated that using this highly self-reliant coping style is not detrimental for people in mildly stressful situations.

"However, our study suggests that it may have negative effects in real-life situations that are really stressful or threatening," Bulent Turan, a graduate psychology student at Stanford University in California, told Reuters Health. Turan performed the research while at the Institute for Behavioral Studies in Istanbul, Turkey.

The study included 89 insulin-dependent patients, aged 16 to 66 years, who had had diabetes for an average 11 years.

Those who were identified as high in dismissing attachment--for example, who emphasized self-reliance and denied their need to be close to others--had poorer psychological adjustment to the disease and did not follow their treatment regimen as closely as those with lower levels of dismissing attachment, Turan and his colleagues report.

In fact, these patients did not regularly perform their required blood tests or take all of their insulin injections, study findings indicate.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

The reason for the association between dismissing attachment and patients' poorer disease outcomes was due to the patients' style of coping with diabetes, according to the researchers.

For example, patients high in dismissing attachment tended to have certain avoidance-related coping strategies such as disliking to read diabetes-related information because it made them worry more. They also reported a higher degree of passive resignation, believing they could do little to control their blood glucose well.

In light of the findings, "individuals with this attachment style and their families should try to rely less on avoidance coping," Turan said.

In addition, "the family and the healthcare personnel should realize that these patients usually do not show distress or ask for help," Turan said, noting that the reason for this is because these individuals "don't expect their needs of this sort to be met."

SOURCE: Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 2002;in press.

Reference Source 89

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