Illness Representations, emotion regulation and wellbeing in ESRD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Illness Representations, emotion regulation strategies and emotional wellbeing in people with End Stage Renal Disease.
IRAS ID
121467
Contact name
Anna Phillips
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Research summary
Many people with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) suffer depression and anxiety. This is bad for their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. The things people believe about their illness can influence whether they become anxious or depressed. That is, people who see their illness as more of a problem and are more upset by their illness, tend to be more depressed and anxious. As yet, we do not fully understand why this is.
Emotion-regulation theories suggest that the extent people are competent in managing their emotions and the strategies used to regulate emotions affect emotional wellbeing. Therefore, if people have upsetting beliefs about their illness, the things they do to cope with that upset may affect their level of anxiety and depression. Studies have found some ways of coping are more helpful than others and that beliefs about illness affect wellbeing because of the things people do to cope with the feelings brought up by the beliefs.
This study investigates whether the link between people’s beliefs about their ESRD and their level of anxiety and depression is affected by their emotional competence and the way they regulate the emotions brought up by their illness. Secondly it looks whether people’s emotional response to illness underlies the connection between their logical, rational, understanding of illness and their level of anxiety and depression.
Should the study find that the way people cope with their emotions in illness affects whether they become anxious or depressed, interventions could be developed to encourage better ways of coping to benefit patients.
Participants with ESRD will be recruited from the Renal Units of The Manchester Royal Infirmary to complete 6 brief questionnaires at two time points: once after consenting to take part and again 3 months later.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0645
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion