Short-term psychological intervention in the urological clinic

Relevance. Short-term clinical-psychological intervention is currently quite commonly used in medicine for the purposes of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation, as it has several advantages over other methods of psychological interventions: a low number of sessions, the possibility of conducting short sessions lasting 10–15 minutes, a clear session structure that allows not only psychologists but also treating physicians to work with patients. Kidney stone disease is a chronic condition with a high risk of recurrence; however, research shows that following a series of simple preventive procedures can significantly reduce the risk of recurrence. It has been observed that nearly 50% of patients stop following these recommendations within six months. This article presents data demonstrating the influence of the degree of formation of attitudes toward following medical prescriptions on the level of therapy adherence, based on which a model of short-term psychological intervention for patients with kidney stone disease aimed at increasing therapy adherence was proposed.
The aim of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the level of therapy adherence, specifically: awareness of the disease, the degree of formation of attitudes towards following medical prescriptions, and the degree of formation of behavioral factors. Additionally, the study aims to develop a short-term intervention plan aimed at increasing therapy adherence for patients with kidney stone disease based on the obtained results.
Methods. The study involved 114 patients with urolithiasis (with localization of the calculus in the kidney – N20.0): 50 men and 64 women, the average age of the examined patients was 52 years. The study used: the questionnaire “Compliance Level” R.V. Kadyrov, a questionnaire specially designed for the purposes of the study. Mathematical and statistical processing was carried out using the Mann-Whitney U-test and regression analysis. The methodology for developing a short-term psychological intervention is based on ideas about the biopsychosocial nature of a person, illness and health, modern ideas about the phenomenon of adherence to treatment, a model of beliefs about health, and the principles of a motivational interview [1, 4, 7, 8, 13].
Results and discussion. The results of the study showed that the examined patients have a high and medium degree of adherence to therapy. It was shown that the most significant factor influencing behavioral compliance is the degree of formation of attitudes to the implementation of medical prescriptions. Based on the results obtained, a short-term psychological intervention plan was developed according to the purpose of the study. The short-term psychological intervention plan consists of five stages. The first stage is aimed at checking the patient’s awareness of the disease and basic preventive measures. The second stage is provided for patients who have insufficient awareness about the disease or prevention. The third stage involves the initial stages of behavioral changes, thus, the specialist assesses the patient’s readiness for lifestyle changes, or encourages existing strategies to ensure adherence to preventive measures. The fourth stage is aimed at specific behavioral changes, planning actions together with the patient, setting goals. Fifth is the last stage, the stage of monitoring changes in behavior, encouraging success, helping a specialist in case of failure of the patient.
Conclusion. The plan of short-term psychological intervention developed and presented can be used both by specialists in the psychological service of somatic medicine and by the attending physicians of patients.

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