Total laryngectomized patient: perspectives for the psychologist's clinical action

Abstract

Total laryngectomy surgery implies aggressive procedures that cause irretrievable esthetic and functional injuries, causing a series of biopsychosocial implications. Through a qualitative research, we have investigated psychosocial repercussions in the subjective construction of laryngectomized patients and their caregivers. The path through illness is experienced as a moment of crisis in which abandonment and destitution feelings prevail. The loss of speech may lead patients to social isolation, deviation from professional functions, with feelings of shame and guilt, leading to anguish and suffering. Caregivers suffer not only due to the possibility of a loss, but also because of their attempts, nor always successful, to give support and offer ambience for new necessities that appear. Results show that knowing psychosocial repercussions of this experience may provide important subsidies to clinical psychology