Abstract
An intensive 5-day quality-of-life (QoL) session was constructed based on a psychosomatic model. The session was comprised of teaching on philosophy of life, psychotherapy, and body therapy. The three elements were put together in such a way that they mutually supported each other. The synergy attained was considerable. The pilot study demonstrated that in the course of only 1 week, patients had time to revise essential life-denying views and to integrate important, unfinished life events involving negative feelings. Consequently, the patients became more present in the body’s blocked-off areas and subjectively healthier. Nineteen persons with chronic illness and pain (fibromyalgia, chronic tiredness, whiplash, mild depression, and problems involving pain in arms and legs including osteoarthritis), and unemployed for 5–7 years attended the course. In the week before and after the 5-day course, the participants completed the validated SEQOL (Self-Evaluation of Quality of Life Questionnaire) including questions on self-evaluated health and the unvalidated “Self-Evaluation of Working-Life Quality Questionnaire” (SEQWL). This pilot study was without a control group or clinical control. As far as diagnoses were concerned, the group was inhomogeneous. Common for the group was a low QoL, poor quality of working life QWL, and numerous health problems. The study showed an 11.2% improvement in QoL (p < 0.05), a 6.3% improvement in QWL (p < 0.05), and a 12.0% improvement in self-perceived physical health (p = 0.08). There was a 17.3% improvement in self-perceived psychological health (p < 0.05) and satisfaction with health in general improved by 21.4% (p < 0.05). Symptoms like pain were almost halved and several of the participants were free of pain for the first time in years. In conclusion it seemed that the combination of training in philosophy of life, psychotherapy, and body therapy can give patients a large, fast, and efficient improvement in QoL, QWL, and health. It is not known if these changes will be permanent and if all kinds of patients with different health problems will gain from this cure. Further research should be conducted.
Highlights
Since the 1990s, the Quality-of-Life Research Center in Copenhagen has studied the connection between quality of life (QoL) and illness with more than 1,000 factors influencing the QoL analysed to identify the factors most important and convenient for intervention
The pilot study showed an 11.2% improvement in QoL, a 6.3 improvement in QWL, and a 12.0% improvement in self-perceived psychological health and satisfaction with health in general improved by 21.4%
The experiment showed an average improvement of QoL of 11.2%, an improvement of QWL of 6.3%, and an improvement of self-perceived “physical health” of 12.0% (p = 0.08)
Summary
Since the 1990s, the Quality-of-Life Research Center in Copenhagen has studied the connection between quality of life (QoL) and illness with more than 1,000 factors influencing the QoL analysed to identify the factors most important and convenient for intervention. The first category contains factors such as the quality of personal relationships, which is greatly contingent on the attitudes and behavioural patterns of that person; personal philosophy of life; and processing the personal history. These factors all show an extensive connection to QoL and theoretically it should be possible to improve upon them, i.e., bring them in greater harmony with life, without changing the surrounding world. The last category is made up of annual income, level of education, and the quality of the environment
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