Research studies on Diabetic patients have revealed that stress and coping strategies are some of the significant powerful determining causal factors responsible for such disorder. The present study examined the extent to which Diabetic patients are different from the Non-Diabetic Patients with respect to the types of psychiatric symptoms, Type A personality and stress coping strategies. Two groups of patients (30 Diabetic patients suffering from Type I and II Diabetes and 30 Non- Diabetic patients suffering from physical illnesses, like mild to severe headaches, knee pain, etc.) who are getting treatment from one of the premier hospitals at Coimbatore provided data on above mentioned three variables through standardized measures. The data were analyzed using Student’s Paired‘t’ test to find out the difference between Diabetic and Non-Diabetic groups. Diabetics tend to have high score on Psychiatric Symptoms, Type A Personality pattern than the other Non-Diabetic Patients. Further, Diabetics are more likely to engage in dysfunctional stress coping strategies such as self-blame, blaming others, ruminating, and catastrophizing than the Non-Diabetic Patients. The implications of the results are discussed with possible interventions to improve the coping skills and overall health condition of the Diabetic.
Journal of Indian Health Psychology Vol. 3, No. 2, March, 2009