PSYCHOSOCIAL ADAPTATION OF PATIENTS WITH CARDIAC PACEMAKERS IMPLANTED IN CHILDHOOD AND TEENAGE

As part of a psychosocial adaptation research project involving patients with cardiac pacemakers implanted in childhood, a group of 45 patients, who had undergone a pacemaker implantation surgery prior to 18 years old, was examined. The research was aimed at studying the internal picture of the disease and coping factors determining the success of psychological and social adaptation. Although the patients did have psychic disorders and disability statuses, they showed high social and labor adaptation levels. However, patients over 18 years old showed interpsychic behavioral reactions to their disorders, while those under 18 years old showed intrapsychic reactions, which signified presence of adaptation issues. They showed a few coping that testified to their personalized susceptibility to psychosomatic and depressive disorders. Those included failure to follow doctors’ recommendations (exposure to physical strains, pregnancy and birth). The domination of the first (adaptive) group of types of reaction toward the disease, which were detected in both groups, as well as the choice of meaningful or relatively meaningful coping strategies made a basis for further psychocorrective work.

psychosocial adaptation, permanent cardiac pacing, internal picture of the disease, coping