EUL Academician Okumuşoğlu discussed “The Importance of Psychological Support in Treatment Compliance of Chronic Patients such as Diabetics”

European University of Lefke Department of Psychology Assoc.Prof. Dr. Sultan Okumuşoğlu made statements on “The Importance of Psychological Support in the Treatment Compliance of Chronic Patients such as Diabetes Patients”.

Okumuşoğlu, who started her speech by stating that it is important for a person to comply with the recommended lifestyle changes in chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes that can be coped with by lifestyle changes, also mentioned that compliance with recommendations such as diet therapy is related to one’s psychology and way of thinking. Stating that some ways of thinking (for example, thinking styles such as “I can do it well or not at all” in a small setback, “I will never succeed no matter what I do”, which lead to complete abandonment) have a significant effect on the inability of individuals to make life style changes related to treatment, Okumuşoğlu drew attention to the necessity and importance of providing psychological support, as well as training on diet and similar lifestyle changes.

EUL Academician Okumuşoğlu stated that education on subjects such as diet, which can be managed by the patient, especially in diabetes and similar chronic diseases, is a vital psycho-social component of interventions for such chronic diseases, and that the World Health Organization defines diabetes as a chronic disease and that it is used in chronic diseases such as diabetes. stressed the importance of being able to devote oneself to treatment recommendations continuously. Okumuşoğlu stated that despite the chronic illness, the patient can lead a long life with a high quality of life, but this is only possible thanks to the compliance with the treatment and the dedication of the patient to the requirements of the treatments.

Okumuşoğlu, “Adherence to diet treatment as a correlate of diet related dysfunctional” published in a journal scanned in important international indexes such as Scopus. As she stated in the findings of her research titled “attitudes in participants with diabetes mellitus”, she stated that the ability of individuals living with chronic diseases to perform successful self-regulation behaviors about their health behaviors is related to their dysfunctional attitudes, cognitions, in other words, their ways of thinking about that subject. She stated that while it is so important for diabetic patients to comply with the diet treatments in order to control the chronic disease through lifestyle changes, patients with unsuccessful results in glycemic control and adherence to treatment have much more dysfunctional thoughts about diet than patients with successful results. Emphasizing that chronic patients who cannot comply with these requirements even if they are given training on treatment requirements, and that this is of vital importance, Okumuşoğlu said that in these patients, both dysfunctional thoughts on the subject – in other words, thoughts that prevent the patient from complying with these very necessary lifestyle changes – She also stated that there are more psychopathologies of eating disorders.

Okumuşoğlu stated that the aforementioned and similar findings emphasize the importance of psychosocial support in increasing and improving the treatment compliance of chronic patients, and also stated that such findings highlight the necessity of studies and interventions related to cognition, that is, thinking styles, in addition to other treatments in the treatment of chronic patients.

Emphasizing that human beings are not only a biological entity and that the importance of psychological and social factors should not be ignored, Okumuşoğlu said that together with the negativities brought by the pandemic, both the treatment compliance in chronic patients and the negative effects of eating disorders and similar psychopathologies are important topics that should be paid attention in the current period.