The majority of patients with cystic fibrosis today reach adulthood. During adolescence, however, many ask themselves questions regarding their possible future realisation.
The aim of this study, ...which was performed using the Rorschach test, was to identify areas of particular problems in a group of CF adolescents monitored by the Pneumology Division of Regina Margherita Children's Hospital in Turin: 26 subjects aged between 14 and 18, including 11 females and 15 males.
The analysis of the test was based on the use of thought, interior resources, instincts and interpersonal relations. The type of intimate resonance was also taken into account and, lastly, a study of the contents was performed using a self-representation grid.
The results obtained show a dishomogeneous profile of the development and quality of intellectual processes faced with the intensity of anxiety, mainly loss anxiety, linked to the disease, even if unrelated to its severity. The integration of emotive and instinctual aspects is difficult: mental development towards adult life appears to be impeded by the predominance of regressive modalities.
On the basis of the study performed, it is possible to hypothesise the need for psychological help aimed at achieving a more evolved psychic organisation, possible as part of an overall management programme by the medical and nursing team.
The recent positive evolution in the development of cystic fibrosis, resulting in the current prospect of survival, has led to the formation of a new population of chronic patients. The ...characteristics of the disease and treatment (hereditary, early onset, affecting the alimentary tract and airways) may interfere with personality structuring processes. The aim of the study was to identify the psychopathological risk.
The study was performed using the Rorschach test in a population of children with cystic fibrosis monitored by the Pneumology Division of the Ospedale Infantile Regina Margherita in Turin: 20 children aged between 7 and 13 years old were included in the study, most of whom had been diagnosed before the age of 2. The analysis of tests was focused on the use of thought, interior resources, instincts and interpersonal relations. A study of the contents was also made using a self-representational grid.
The results obtained highlight an inhibitory attitude which cannot be attributed to intellectual insufficiency, but rather to the failed attempt to invest in the intellectual sphere, typical of this age range, owing to the intensity of anguish. Children with cystic fibrosis appear to be at an earlier stage of development, marked by emotive coarctation and the use of adult-type defensive methods, tending towards rationalisation.
Oh the basis of this study, it is possible to detect a danger of disharmonious organisation in the personality structuring process of these children. The hospital must therefore offer adequate psychological support for their psychic evolution.
