[Diagnostic screening of social status in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis]

In the literature there is evidence for that the mood of a patient with pulmonary tuberculosis affects the treatment and course of the disease. The necessity of special training of physicians and the duration of an examination make personality tests applied by psychologists not easily accessible to phthisiologists. The author developed methods for integral assessment of social and psychological characteristics by using questionnaire survey. He drew up a special questionnaire given in the Supplement. The questionnaire was used to study 246 middle-aged patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: 141 males aged 41.5 +/- 3.1 years and 105 females aged 42.1 +/- 2.7 years. The paper presents the data of this examination by means of this procedure. An analysis of the findings by physicians jointly with patients was a psychological correction. To provide the members of the patients' families with positive information was a form of familial counselling that is essential in assisting the patients to adapt themselves to the disease and to enhance their social activity.