14 DAY TRIAL // A group of investigators from the University of Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, has recently made a very interesting discovery. In their investigation on the effects of certain treatments on diabetes-related foot ulcers, they determined that patients exhibited varied rates of healing. The team found that the variation could be directly correlated with the patients' state of mind, which basically means that their attitudes can influence the course of their treatment.
The group, which was made up of health psychologists, published its results in the latest issue of the esteemed medical journal Diabetologia, which deals with diabetes-related issues. The research also helped the scientists determine that the way patients coped with their condition was a clear indicators as to whether the severity of their wounds would increase or decrease. The large scale study was led by research scientist Kavita Vedhara, who is a professor at the university's Institute of Work, Health and Organizations.
The group also learned that even the level of depression the patients exhibited played an important role in the way their response to treatment evolved. These conclusions seem to dictate that not all people respond to the same medication in the same way, and that a large part of all treatments lies within the mind, mood and behavior of the patients themselves. The investigation was conducted on leg and foot ulcer patients because these wounds are very painful. This means that people who have them tend to be more depressed, and have a reduced quality of life, AlphaGalileo reports.
A counterintuitive discovery was the fact that patients who adopted a confrontational attitude towards the disease – who wanted to take control of their situation – showed less improvement over the 24 weeks of study. “My colleagues and I believe that this confrontational approach may, inadvertently, be unhelpful in this context because these ulcers take a long time to heal. As a result, individuals with confrontational coping may experience distress and frustration because their attempts to take control do not result in rapid improvements,” says Vedhara.