[Coping with stress and self-awareness in idiopathic sudden deafness]

In the work presented here patterns of stress management and self awareness of patients with sudden hearing loss (n = 50) are studied and compared to a control group. Private self awareness is conceived as a moderator of stress management. Data analysis was performed with special consideration given to gender specificity of patterns investigated. The profile of stress management in patients with sudden hearing loss differs from control groups. As for stress management, gender specific data analysis reveals for male as well as for female patients significant differences when compared to control groups. Beyond that, profiles of stress management differ between males and females. Furthermore, private self awareness in patients with sudden hearing loss exhibit significant differences in mean values when compared to control groups, which is interpreted as a reflection of a lower prevalence of private self awareness. However, gender specific analysis supports this initially significant result only to have tendentious character. With respect to preventive treatment and prophylaxis of relapse, our results suggest that training in stress management should be completed by bodily oriented procedures suited to enhance the perception of body signals.