“Because It Kind of Falls in Between, Doesn’t It? Like an Acute Thing and a Chronic”: the Psychological Experience of Anaphylaxis in Adulthood

Walklet, Elaine, Taylor, Charlotte, Bradley, Eleanor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5877-2298, Mahoney, Berenice ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7414-8185, Scurlock-Evans, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9819-5031 and O'Hickey, Stephen (2018) “Because It Kind of Falls in Between, Doesn’t It? Like an Acute Thing and a Chronic”: the Psychological Experience of Anaphylaxis in Adulthood. Journal of Health Psychology, 23 (12). pp. 1579-1589. ISSN 1359-1053 Online: 1461-7277

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Abstract

Anaphylaxis is a serious, rare condition increasing in prevalence. This study explored the psychological experience of adult-onset anaphylaxis from patient, family and staff perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants. Two global themes emerged from thematic analysis: ‘controllability’ (‘an unknown and distressing experience’, ‘the importance of control over triggers’ and ‘responsibility but no control: the impact on others’) and ‘conflict’ (‘rejecting illness identity’, ‘minimisation of risk’, ‘accessing specialist care: running in slow motion’ and ‘patient-centred versus service-centred care’). Findings highlight the importance of perceived control and emphasise the presence of conflict in the experience of this complex, episodic condition.

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