Getting the Wheels in Motion to Deal With Unmet Psychological Need: A Reply to “The Pulmonary Hypertension Global Patient Survey: Physical and Psychosocial Impacts on Health-Related Quality of Life”
Gregg H. Rawlings, Iain Armstrong, Andrew R. Thompson, David G. Kiely
https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.70356
The authors of “The Pulmonary Hypertension Global Patient Survey: Physical and Psychosocial Impacts on Health-Related Quality of Life,” along with the participants who bravely shared their experiences, are to be commended for this important contribution to the field. In their paper, the data from 3329 adults with pulmonary hypertension (PH) across 88 countries were analyzed. Patients were asked a range of questions covering the impact of PH on daily functioning, emotional and physical wellbeing, treatment and side effects, employment, birth planning, and patient-reported outcome measures [1]. The findings support the growing evidence base documenting the psychological and emotional impact of the condition [2-4]. The authors conclude that psychological support is “highly requested but frequently unmet.” The question we ask in this letter is: why is it unmet?
This letter is not intended to undervalue the efforts of PH healthcare professionals who strive to deliver holistic care and support patients' emotional needs. However, the recurring high rates of psychological distress in this clinical group, alongside reported barriers to accessing support, as reported in the Global Patient Survey and elsewhere [5-7], cannot be overlooked.
Greater efforts are needed to better understand the underlying causes and related to this, to also develop effective psychological interventions. To achieve this, we want to propose using well-established frameworks to inform the development, evaluation, and implementation of interventions aimed at changing behavior. These approaches have been used to improve health outcomes in other long-term health conditions but so far, we are not aware of their systematic application within PH.
Other materials on this topic
More from Pulmonary Circulation
A collection of up-to-date abstracts from our premier, international, peer-reviewed, medical research journal dedicated exclusively to pulmonary circulation and pulmonary vascular disease.