Hostility in Chronic Diseases

Ljiljana Trtica Majnaric^* & Stolnik, D.

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Family Medicine and the History of Medicine, University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

Dr. Ljiljana Trtica Majnaric, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Family Medicine and the History of Medicine and Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health, Department of Public Health, University of Osijek

Keywords: Anger; Hostility; Chronic Somatic Diseases; Pathophysiology; Interventions

Abstract

Mental disorders in older people, notably anxiety and depression, have received significant attention of researches in the last decades due to the recognized disabling effect of these disorders on the development and course of chronic somatic diseases and the quality of life. Disturbed mental health cannot be limited only to the well-defined mental disorders, but includes a range of negative moods and emotional reactions to the environmental and social stressors, that oscillate in intensity and over time. Although tools for assessing moods and emotions are included in psychological evaluations, little is known on associations between emotional reactions and physical (somatic) health in terms of cause-consequence relationships. There are no clear answers, too, in which part negative moods and emotions are influenced with the personality traits and in which part with the miserable lifelong experience and adoption of inadequate coping mechanisms. The pre-existed somatic diseases and the underlying pathophysiology disorders, such as altered receptors density and hormon secretory patterns, may also produce or enhance the intensity and duration of negative moods and emotions. The negative emotional state that is most commonly mentioned in the literature as being associated with chronic somatic diseases, is hostility. This essay discusses some doubts related to the definition of this term, highlights relationships between hostility and chronic diseases and makes directions for future research.

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