LOCUS OF CONTROL AND LEARNED HELPLESSNESS PHENOMENON IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC INTERNAL DISEASES

• Main Authors: Grekhov R.A., Suleymanova G.P., Adamovich E.I.
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Volgograd State University 2016-04-01
• Series: Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriâ 11. Estestvennye Nauki
• Subjects: biofeedback; psychophysiology; psychosomatic medicine; medical psychology; behavioral therapy; functional systems of self-regulation; the level of subjective control; the theory of learned helplessness
• Online Access: http://ns.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/384

The article discloses the concept of locus of control (or the level of subjective control), the phenomenon of learned helplessness in the framework of psychosomatic medicine, and their impact on the efficacy of treatment process. The data on the impact of these factors on the daily living and emotional state of patients, their interpersonal and social relationships, the reasons for the formation of learned helplessness are listened. The alternative psychophysiological treatment methods for emotional and behavioral disorders in psychosomatic diseases, in particular the effectiveness of biofeedback therapy in different types of physical pathology, which opens up the possibility of the patient to implement self-regulation mechanisms are presented. Biofeedback is a practically single psychophysiological evidence-based method of alternative medicine and it is regarded as a branch of behavioral therapy, which aims not only to the regulation of psychophysiological state, but also to shift the external locus of control to the inside. During the application of biofeedback, developed “functional system of self-regulation” form its perfect result. Biofeedback is the process of achieving a greater patient’s awareness of many physiological functions of his body, primarily with the use of tools that provide him with information on his activities, in order to obtain the possibility to manage the systems of his body by his own discretion. The probable mechanism of therapeutic action is the cognitive effect of biofeedback experiences, learning skills of self-control which patients had never happened before. The faith of the patient in his ability to control the symptoms of the disease is considered as a critical value, not a degree of measurable physiological changes.