A view from here: Psychosocial issues in colostomy care

摘要

Preserving life or relieving debilitating symptoms is a primary outcome of colostomy surgery, but there is no escaping the social and psychological consequences of this procedure. According to Sprangers and colleagues1 and Vironen and colleagues, loneliness, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and sexual impairment are common. In 2008, more than 1.36 million people in the United States, Japan, and the major countries within the European Community were living with a permanent colostomy, ileostomy, or urostomy. This number is projected to rise by 1.2% by 2015. According to this projection, and a recent report that shows year-by-year improvements in survival rates for bowel cancer (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/ cancer), it is likely that more people will be living longer with a colostomy. As a surgical end-point, social and psychological dysfunction in ostomy patients has long attracted researchers of many disciplines including nursing, health psychology, and social medicine.