Patient resilience is a strong predicator of satisfaction after orthopaedic treatment

Abstract

There is a clear inter-relationship between physical and psychological recovery after injuries and surgery.1Post-traumatic psychological disturbance, mediated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal(HPA) axis2may affect a significant minority of patients,1,3but the majority of patients are able to cope with a stressful experience, including injury or surgery, by internalizing memories as part of a coping strategy that may be considered as resilience.4This resilience appears to be in part' trait’(i.e. inherent/fixed) and at least partly 'state’(i.e. amenable to change), and is also HPA modu-lated.2,3A better understanding of patient resilience may have wider potential benefits than a narrow focus upon psychopathology