Psychological Effect of Leishmaniasis - Research Paper Example

1 PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LEISHMANIASIS INTRODUCTION This is a small report describing the psychological effects of Leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis isa parasitic disease affecting mainly the: 1. Skin, 2. Mucous membranes and 3. Internal organs. The causative organism belongs to the genus Leishmania. The other names for this disease are sand fly disease, Dum-Dum fever, espundia and kala azar. This disease mainly affects the poor countries of the world. [1] As mentioned in his report, Kassi et al (PLoS Negl Trop Dis > v.2(10); Oct 2008) stated that: “Cutaneous leishmaniasis or “Kal Dana” (“the year-long sore”), as is known locally, not only leaves a disfiguring scar on your face, but permanently changes your perception of your own self.” [2] Being mainly a disease of poor countries, the person affected by it suffers a lot of other difficulties in addition to bearing the physical effects of this disease. Due to lack of knowledge and literacy, the people in these areas find it better to keep away from such patients in order to avoid being affected by it themselves. These patients face a discouraging behave from everyone, and everywhere they go. In their report, Kassi et al. have mentioned the case of a poor girl suffering from Leishmaniasis, who was deprived of her basic education just because she was a victim of this disease. In addition, nobody was ready to marry her, due to this problem. [2] Also in this study is mentioned that an increased rate of depression, anxiety, body satisfaction impairment was found in a study conducted in Sanliurfa, Turkey. 2 An important factor of these psychological effects is the involvement of the exposed parts of the body, like the facial lesions affecting nose and ears and sometimes leading to severe disfiguring of face; thus further increasing the social isolation of the patient. We prepared our report on the basis of the interviews conducted with the affected persons. There were ten male and ten female patients interviewed. Out of the ten male patients, five were between thirty to forty years of age, while the other five were above fifty years of age. Moreover, all of them had Leishmaniasis affecting their arms or legs. While in female patients, all of them were between thirty to forty years of age, with nine of them suffering from the lesions on arms and legs, while one had lesions on the face. The questions conducted in our report comprised of questions covering the psychological effects of Leishmaniasis. This questioner is about asking the effects of this disease on patient’s personal life, family life, spouse relationships, disturbance at job place, psychological effects like embarrassment ant depression, outcome of this disease, social communication and also about any ways adopted by the patient to get rid of this lesion. The results of this short survey show different facts for the male and female patients. Among the male patients, it is seen that the psychological as well as social effects of Leishmaniasis were associated basically with the patients between the age group thirty to forty, while those above fifty, seemed to be less affected by such affects. While for the female patients, almost all of them suffered with the psychological effects like depression and anxiety. The psychological and social effects of Leishmaniasis in this group seemed to be more related to the site of lesion, as only one patient was suffering with the facial Leishmaniasis and she felt rejected socially as well at many places, while this was not the case with those suffering with the lesions only at arms or legs. Thus we can conclude that the psychological effects of this disease can’t be ignored, especially if its affecting the face of the patient, whether male or female. 3 METHODS No specific methods were used. It was a survey style questioner, which was completed after personally interviewing the affected patients. RESULTS The questions along with the results obtained are given below: 1. Does the lesion upset you? In response to this question, five male patients, in the age group 30-40yrs told that they were upset by this lesion. The other five patients, above 50yrs of age told that they were not disturbed by this lesion. Among the female patients, all of them told us that they were upset by this lesion. 2. Does it cause any disability to you? All of the ten male patients did not have any disability due to this disease. Out of the ten female patients, only one had suffered with a disability. This patient was the only one among all the women questioned who had the lesion affecting her face as well. All the others did not have any disability. 3. Does it have any effect on your family relationship? All of the male patients declined this possibility. While among the female patients, all of them declined this possibility, except the one suffering with the facial lesion. 4. Do you feel embarrassing in front of your spouse? This question also had same results as above. No one felt embarrassment except the only one female patient suffering with the facial lesion. 5. Does it cause any depression to you? All of the male patients except one accepted this fact. All of the female patients told that they feel depressed due to this disease. 6. Do your colleagues treat you differently after your infection? None among all the male and female patients, except for the one female patient suffering with the facial lesion were treated differently by their colleagues. 4 7. Do you feel embarrassing in front of your colleagues and friends? Four out of ten male patients replied as yes. These were those within the age group 30-40yrs. The other six, replied as no. All of the female patients said yes in response to this question. 8. Did you stop working after infection? None stopped working except for the only female patient suffering with the facial lesion. 9. Did you try to hide the lesion? Five male patients within the age group 30-40yrs and one of age >50yrs agreed with this fact, while four disagreed. Those were all above fifty yrs of age. All of the female patients tried to hide the lesion. 10. Did you have any anxiety due to any scar or disfiguration? Five male patients in the age group 30-4-yrs and two above 50yrs of age agreed while three above 50yrs of age disagreed. All of the female patients suffered with anxiety. 11. Did the lesion have any effect on your social communication? Three male patients within the age group 30-40yrs agreed, while seven disagreed. DISCUSSION Now after all this report, many things have become much clear. When taking into the account such disease as Leishmaniasis, which can severely disfigure the body parts affected in some patients, we cannot forget the psychological effects it causes on such patient. It is seemed that men appear to be less affected by their outlook than the women. So, the results of this survey display the fact that out of the ten women questioned, only one was suffering with the facial lesions and she was the one who bared both the social and psychological effects of this disease, even to such an extent that she had to leave her job. While the other women with the lesions only on arms and legs, seemed to be less affected. However, among the male patients, those between the age groups thirty to forty seemed to have more social effects of this disease on them as compared to those falling in the age group above fifty. This is due to the obvious fact that the younger persons have to face a wider social 5 network, including their job place and other areas of interest, while with the advancing age, the social network continues to decrease, due to decreased activity of the person. The psychological effects showed almost the same result in both the age groups, however, they were still less that the women. To conclude, we can say that cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a disease affecting the skin of an individual. It can sometimes cause severe disfiguring of the body parts affected, and this proves to have real negative impact on the patient, especially if the face or other exposed body parts are involved. Among the common psychological effects on these patients are: 1. Depression 2. Anxiety and 3. Embarrassment So, these patients not only need the dermatological treatment, but a psychological support as well. In those areas of world where there is very less awareness about this disease, there is strong need to spread knowledge about its effects. In many poor countries of the world, due to the lack of education, people have wrong concepts about the spread of this disease and they think it to be highly contagious. This especially affects the women affected in such areas, as they are then deprived of many of their basic rights owing to their illness. The need is to change the social attitude towards the patients affected by Leishmaniasis. These people should not be treated in the way they are being normally treated. The better is the social attitude towards them, the lesser will be the psychological effects of Leishmaniasis among these patients. 6 REFERENCES 1. J. Dellaporta. What is Leishmaniasis? [online] 2003-2009 [cited April 15th, 2009]. Available from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-leishmaniasis.htm 2. Masoom Kassi, Mahwash Kassi, Abaseen Khan Afghan, Rabeea Rehman, Pashtoon Murtaza Kassi. Marring Leishmaniasis: The Stigmatization and the Impact of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Pakistan and Afghanistan. [online] 2008 [cited April 15th, 2009]. Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2569210 Read More