[Health control beliefs and chronic illness:how do they relate?]

The health locus of control has been extensively analyzed in diff erent patient populations suff ering from chronic somatic illnesses due to its infl uence on adherence to long-term therapies. Despite of the fact that adherence is one of the most important factors which needs to be taken into consideration in the oupatient care of psychiatric patients, there is a scarcity of studies regarding HLOC in this population. In this review we provide an overview of study results regarding HLOC in somatic and psychiatric patients. Based on these results we conclude that in the case of patients suff ering from chronic illnesses, a higher internal HLOC is associated with less severe depressive symptoms and better adherence and quality of life. Nevertheless, the results of the follow-up studies indicate that change of HLOC (from internal to external) can be adaptive when the outcome is not favourable or the treatment is not eff ective. The continuous evaluation of HLOC of psychiatric patients in treatment may provide necessary information for the planning of interventions to help this process. Taking into consideration that the patients' perception of control is often impaired due to the nature of psychiatric illnesses we propose evaluation of psychobiological factors infl uencing health locus of control in order to facilitate the planning of these interventions.