Impact of Psychological Rehabilitation on Healing of Burn Patients

Authors

The Departments of General Surgery* and Psychiatry**, Faculty of Medicine, Menofia University

Abstract

Abstract Background: Psycological distress among people who have sustained burns is common. The time taken for burn wounds to heal can not be fully explained by physical factors such as burn type, wound size and depth only. Clinicians should not ignore the importance of psycological influences on the wound healing process and also give consideration to the potential for psycological rehabilitation to lessen patient's distress and improve wound healing outcomes. Aim of Study: The aim is assessment of psychiatric status of burn patients during hospitalization, determination of psycological intervention methods and observation of impact of psycological rehabilitation on healing of burn patients. Patients and Methods: The present non-randomized, prospective, cohort study was conducted on 40 patients with partial or full-thickness burns that attended Burn Unit of Plastic Surgery Department, Menoufia University Hospital between January and December 2019. Approval of the ethical committee and written informed consent from all participants was obtained. Results: In the present study, in the pre-intervention period, we found that 35% of the patients had mild-to-moderate anxiety and most of the patients had scaled burn (55%) and the mean burn surface area was 18.45±8.51%. The majority of the patients had mixed burn degree (57.5%). Conclusion: Psychological interventions appear to effec-tively reduce burn patient psychological morbidities. We demonstrated that psychological interventions significantly reduce the risk of depression, anxiety, and hospital stay compared to usual care. These findings are very important as it confirms the promising role of psychological interventions in burn patients. Nevertheless, further studies with rigorous design, large sample size and multiregional cooperation are required.

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