Coping with motor neurone disease--an analysis using self-regulation theory.

Medicine and environmental changes have had tremendous success in controlling the infectious diseases that were the major causes of death in the last century. However, the consequential extension of life has been accompanied by an increase in the number of persons living with and dying of chronic illness. Despite these changes and their implications, the means by which people cope with such illnesses has only recently begun to receive the attention the subject warrants. Such diseases have a high prevalence in the population and self-detection and self-management are critical to the treatment and control of chronic disease and disability. This paper examines how people cope with motor neurone disease and sets this in the context of earlier research on psychological aspects of chronic disease and current theoretical approaches to coping with long-term ill health.