[Illness and threat. Forms of psychosocial coping in multiple sclerosis]

The onset of a chronic illness is synonymous with a massive breach in the stability and routine in the daily life of the patient. These individuals are thus confronted with the task of integrating the illness and its consequences into their lives in a manner that, despite and with the illness, will allow them to live as normal life as possible. Multiple Sclerosis, however, presents specific problems in the sense that it is chronic illness with uncertain prognosis whose course can neither be predicted nor influenced. The question as to how and how successfully the chronically ill cope with MS is pursued in this paper, focusing on a group of 60 MS-patients over a period of five years following diagnosis. Both the individual coping patterns as well as the occupational situation and the forms of mutual coping in the family or partner relationship are considered. These factors are decisive in determining the significance of the illness in the lives of all those involved and whether it will be possible to deal with the more grave forms of MS and their psychosocial consequences in a flexible manner.