Adjusting to Multiple sclerosis: What do we know and can we help?
Sat 11.00 -12.00 (H1)
Biography: Prof. Rona Moss-Morris (PhD, CPsychol)
Professor of Health Psychology
Rona Moss-Morris is a Professor of Health
Psychology at the University of Southampton.
She grew up in South Africa and immigrated to
New Zealand in 1988 where she completed her
postgraduate training in health psychology. She
held an academic position at the University of
Auckland for 10 years before immigrating to the
UK to take up her current position. She is best
known for her work on illness perceptions and the
aetiology of functional somatic syndromes and
has been researching psychological factors that
affect adaptation to chronic illness for the past
fifteen years.
This research has been used to design cognitive behavioural interventions for medically unexplained conditions, and more recently, multiple sclerosis. Randomised-controlled trials to test the efficacy of these interventions form a key component of her research. Professor Moss- Morris’s work has been published in leading medical and health psychology journals. She has also written a book, Coping with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and a number of chapters for health psychology texts. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Psychology and Health, the principal European health psychology journal.
Abstract
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) poses significant challenges for adjustment. It tends to be diagnosed at a time of life when people are most productive. The disease imposes a lifetime of uncertainly and the possibility of increasing symptoms and disability. In this paper I will present a model of adjustment to MS which we developed from a systematic review of 72 published studies and qualitative interviews with 30 people with MS diagnosed within the past 10 years and 15 of their spouses.
will discuss factors which have been shown to be related to good adjustment such as seeking social support, acceptance of the illness, positively reinterpreting situations, good health behaviours and a sense of control over the illness. I will also discuss other factors such as high levels of perceived stress, perceiving the illness and symptoms as threatening, and avoidance coping strategies which are related to worse adjustment in MS. I will show how we have used this information and our interviews with patients and their partners to design a cognitive behavioural therapy package to assist adjustment to MS. We are currently looking at the efficacy of this approach in a randomised controlled trial of people in the early stages of MS. We are also interviewing people undertaking the therapy to find out how they experience the therapy and if we need to modify it in any way.
