“Adjustment to Chronic Illness”

Chronic illnesses raise a number of challenges for psychologists. Since medicine and technology have advanced in the last decades, patients with a chronic condition have increased their life expectancy. This increase shifts the focus from treatment to management, raising new challenges for patients and health professionals. For patients to improve their quality of life, they need to develop better skills for coping and adjusting to illness, for which there are a number of self-management, self-monitoring, and behavior change interventions. Psychological intervention is also an integrant part of the treatment, and this is essential in promoting adjustment to the condition. This adjustment can be seen as having an impact on illness outcomes, well-being, and treatment adherence, as well as in reducing costs for patients and for the health care system.

This special issue aims to highlight psychosocial aspects of adjustment to chronic illness having in mind recent developments in technology, as well as societal changes. Further, we would like to invite authors to submit research concerning the contribution of e-health and m-health for self-management, self-monitoring, and adjustment to chronic conditions. We invite authors to submit review articles that will be a novel contribution in the field, addressing the gaps in existing body of research or providing an in-depth analysis of a present state of knowledge. We welcome papers on chronic illness such as, but not limited to, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, COPD, ESRD, pain, obesity, and rheumatic diseases.

The goals of this special issue are:

1. 1)
   to explore recent theoretical developments on adjustment to chronic illness,
2. 2)
   to review empirical research on adjustment to several chronic illnesses, and
3. 3)
   to identify venues for bridging the gap between research and practitioners.

We are interested in theoretical or review papers on:

Conceptual issues related with adjustment to chronic illnesses. These papers include review papers on:

• •
  Moderators of adjustment to chronic conditions (e.g., patient, health care providers, and/or sociocultural factors).
• •
  Factors that influence treatment adherence and chronic illness self-management (including illness perceptions, health behavior change, self-monitoring, and care-seeking).

Reviews or meta-analysis for particular illnesses, populations, or interventions. These papers include:

• •
  Research on adjustment for particular illnesses (e.g., diabetes, AIDS, cancer, heart disease).
• •
  Interventions to promote adjustment or to manage symptoms.
• •
  Interventions to improve treatment adherence and self-management for chronic conditions across the life-span.
• •
  New and emerging approaches to improving treatment adherence and self-management (e.g., e-health, m-health).

Questions regarding the special issue should be directed to:

Maria João Figueiras (maria.figueiras@almada.ipiaget.pt) or David Neto (david.neto@almada.ipiaget.pt).

• Deadline for submission of full papers is March 30, 2017

The journal seeks to maintain a short turnaround time, with the final version of the accepted papers being due by September 30, 2017.

All manuscripts should be submitted via the online submission system:

• http://www.editorialmanager.com/ep

Detailed author instructions can be found at:

• www.hogrefe.com/j/ep