Hadassah doctors confirm that ALS patients with positive attitude experience less pain
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Famed physicist Stephen Hawking lived with the disease for more than 50 years
A team of Israeli neurologists from the Hadassah Medical Organization, in collaboration with colleagues from The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo, have confirmed that ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients experience less pain if they have a positive attitude towards their illness. The study’s findings reveal that patients who shun depression, have a higher perceived quality of life, regardless of their physical impairment.
Dr. Marc Gotkine, head of Hadassah’s ALS clinic and one of the lead researchers, explains that “doctors can help in this process.”
The majority of people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, also commonly known as ALS, only live for about five years after their initial diagnosis. But famed physicist Stephen Hawking lived with the disease for more than 50 years. One reason, according to new research, might have been his positive outlook on life. Hawking was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 21, and doctors gave him only two years to live.
Doctors have long told patients with chronic illnesses to maintain a “glass half full” attitude. You often hear about people “beating back” cancer because of their stubbornness to give into the disease. But a team of Israeli doctors has gone a step further, providing scientific proof to this often-cited anecdotal evidence. Neurologists of the Hadassah Medical Organization and the Tel Aviv-Yaffo Academic College, published a study with some remarkable findings. They discovered that ALS patients who shun depression and opt for a positive attitude have a higher perceived quality of life, regardless of their physical impairment. Forty-one ALS patients participated in the study. “One might expect that terminally-ill patients in general, and ALS in particular, will have difficulty attaining and maintaining hope, due to the incurable nature of the disease,” the researchers pointed out. “However, as demonstrated in our current study, hope is not necessarily linked with prognosis or existence of a cure. In fact, hope improves coping even in terminally-ill patients with physical limitations.”
Dr. Marc Gotkine who helped lead the research said, “having an optimistic outlook and being hopeful is very important in maintaining a high-quality of life in ALS,” while speaking to the Grapevine newspaper. Gotkine tries to keep this in mind while breaking the news of an ALS diagnosis to a patient. “The way that the news are initially delivered is actually going to very much dictate the state of mind of the patient and their family, throughout the entire course of the disease and how well they’ll be able to cope with it. So, I think it’s really important to do it the right way.” Gotkine said that doctors can help during this process.
For more than 100 years, Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem (www.hadassah-med.com) has been a leader in medicine and nursing in Israel, laying the foundation and setting the standards for the country’s modern health care system. The majority of medical breakthroughs in Israel have taken place there. With more than 130 departments and clinics, Hadassah-Ein Kerem provides Israel’s most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic services for the local and national population and a significant number of international patients.
iMER (International Medical Evaluation and Referrals) is a Worldwide Health Services Provider and the exclusive representative of Hadassah University Hospital in Greece and Cyprus, offering healthcare services in the most technologically and medically advanced centers in Israel and treatments that cannot be found elsewhere, by medical scientists that are pioneers in their field of specialization.
