Impact of Coping Styles on the levels of Depression and Anxiety on Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the frequency of different coping styles and their impact on the levels of anxiety and depression among patients with spinal cord injury in Peshawar. Sample of the study consisted of seventy (N=70) male and female patients, with age range (14-58) years from Paraplegic Institute Hayat Abad Peshawar. A demographic sheet, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, Pashto version (Irfan etal., 2016)  and Brief cope questionnaire (Carver, 1997) were administered on the subjects using interview format. Subjects were selected through purposive sampling technique. Frequency of different coping styles was investigated through finding out average responses on the respective scales in the given questionnaire. Regression analysis was conducted to check the impact of different coping styles on the levels of depression and anxiety among these patients. It was concluded from the present study that most frequently used coping styles of patients with spinal cord injury were religion, positive reframing and active coping. More cases were lying in abnormal and borderline categories of anxiety and depression as compared to normal categories. Self-distraction and instrumental support were negative whereas self-blame was found to be a positive and significant predictor of depression. Similarly self-blame and denial also played a significant role in increasing levels of anxiety in this clinical population.