Becoming a mother when suffering from a chronic illness

INTRODUCTION

The critical period of early motherhood when facing serious health problems constitutes a major public health issue. The disease may interfere with, influence, and compound the difficulties experienced over the course of pregnancy and during the parenthood processes. These processes are to be understood as a passage involving so many changes and fraught with difficulties leading to a series of psychological mobilizations. Illness also needs to be considered as a moment of transition, sometimes of severance, marking the lives of the people concerned in a more or less lasting way. Various developments are possible, some of which can be envisaged as leading to more positive outcomes, while others appear as if blocked or doomed to failure.

CLINICAL DATA AND METHOD

This clinical study is the result of twelve analytically oriented psychotherapeutic follow-ups. The sessions took place weekly over periods ranging from 1 to 6 years. Some of the patients we met had become pregnant while they had a declared but not yet chronic nephropathy. The other patients were already on dialysis and had become mother before starting dialysis. There is also one instance of a pregnant patient on dialysis. In the background, there are also many women who talked about giving up fertility and motherhood. After an in-depth study of each follow-up, a cross-sectional study was conducted to identify the main themes.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Main considerations on the psychotherapeutic treatment: We regularly observe people who find it impossible to muster the internal resources that would enable them to deal with the trials they undergo in such situations. For the psychologist, there is a need to listen to archaic remnants. Gradually, in the space of psychotherapeutic work, possibilities of "reanimation" of the psyche emerge, an internal space that renews fantasmatic activity as it begins to be able to project into the external space and into the space of the sessions.

Couples Coping With the Serious Illness of One of the Partners

Chronic kidney failure is a serious somatic disease. Addressing the issue of living with a chronic disease means fully considering the patients’ entourage, their families, and those close to them, especially their children and spouses.

Objectives: The present paper focuses on the couple’s psychological experience when one of them suffers from a chronic disease, in this instance kidney disease. In particular, how is the spouse affected by the treatment provided? The aim is not only to see how care for sick people can be improved, but also, more specifically, how relatives and especially partners can receive attention.

Methodology: A qualitative approach is not only adopted, being based on the psychotherapeutic follow-up of the partners of patients with chronic kidney disease, but also of the patients themselves, addressing the matter of their life as a couple. Three couples were considered, and two case studies are presented here. The issues that cut across these different situations are examined.

Results and Discussion: Some couples show considerable resourcefulness. However, over the years, that capacity for adaptation and inventiveness can also be interrupted by the periods of greater suffering and even despair, especially when the somatic pathology becomes chronic. Many spouses talk about how living with a sick partner weighs down on them, causing severe fatigue. Some aspects of the illness can also become traumatic. The disease regularly disrupts the daily life of the couple and the family. This leads to a reworking of family relations. Each couple has its own history with the condition. As it emerges, it can disrupt the bonds of filiation, especially when the illness is hereditary. Making psychological care more accessible to the partners involved constitutes a major challenge for our hospital care systems.

The place of the body in young adults' use of the new technologies: Virtual bodies?

This research was initiated by the remark that new technologies allow young adults (from 18 to 25 years old) to have a faster and more direct access to the world, as well as a social life that is both broader and hidden from parental view. The aim of this research is therefore to understand better the role of new technologies in young adults' life, especially how they perceive their body through both images and others' eyes. Also, we intended to study the impact of new technologies on the psychical links and psychical functioning during the transition to adulthood. From a methodological point of view, we obtained qualitative results from semi-directive interviews.

Early substance consumption and problematic use of video games in adolescence

Substance use as well as use of video games is frequent among young people. The purpose of this research was to study the links between the use of video games and the consumption of various substances such as alcohol, tobacco or cannabis at adolescence. In order to do so, 1423 students from middle and high schools filled an auto-questionnaire that included questions on age, gender, year of study, use of video games and consumptions of alcohol (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Short version, AUDIT-C), tobacco (Heaviness of Smoking Index, HSI), and cannabis (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test, CAST). We found that 92.1% of teens use video games and 17.7% have a problematic use of video games (PUVG). Furthermore, results show that substance consumption seems frequent with 19.8 and 8.3% of participants having hazardous alcohol and cannabis consumptions respectively and 5.2% having a moderate to high tobacco dependence. Video gamers consumed significantly more alcohol and gamers with PUVG started their substance consumption (alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis) earlier. PUVG was found to be negatively correlated to age at first substance consumption, but positively correlated to the time spent playing video games. However, it was not correlated to risks of substance dependence (scores of AUDIT-C, HSI, and CAST). Finally, our results are consistent with the literature, in regard to frequency of substance use and use of video games in adolescence. These data will allow for a better consideration of prevention strategies and future care in this particular field.

[What does a thorough personality questionnaire, the MMPI-2, tell us about psychological aspects of recurrent miscarriage?]

OBJECTIVES

Try to analyse the experience of couples undergoing repeated miscarriages by answering the following questions: what can we learn from these men and women who suffered from repeated miscarriages?

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A thorough personality questionnaire, the MMPI-2, presented to 50 couples who have had repeated miscarriages.

RESULTS

Through a hierarchical classification, different profiles appear in the men's group as well as in the women's group, revealing a somatization of psychological suffering. It is also revealing acute defensive personality profiles showing restricted affects in a lot of these men whose partners have suffered from multiple procreation failures. Such a narrower range of emotions can be a cause of additional pain for their partner and for themselves.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We can therefore establish that, in these circumstances, the medical and/or psychological treatment should include both couple members to improve the marital adjustment and ease the couple towards another pregnancy which is always apprehended with the fear of another failure. A few etiological hypothesis may be evoked.