Effects of solution-focused counseling provided for patients with chronic renal failure on their coping with and adaptation to the illness: a randomized controlled trial

Hemodialysis, the most commonly used treatment for chronic renal failure, negatively affects patients' lives from psychological, social and economic aspects. If the stressors that occur due to hemodialysis treatment are perceived realistically by the patient using solution-focused counseling (SFC), if adequate and appropriate situational support is provided, and if effective coping mechanisms are available and activated, patients learn to live with the disease by restructuring their lives and they adapt to the illness. However, it is known that experimental studies using solution-focused counseling in chronic renal failure are insufficient. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of solution-focused counseling on coping competence and disease adaptation in patients with chronic renal failure. The research was conducted with 60 hemodialysis patients (30 experimental, 30 control) using a pretest-posttest randomized controlled experimental design. Following the implementation of the Solution-Focused Counseling program, participants in the experimental group demonstrated higher levels of coping competence compared to the control group, with increased use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. In contrast, participants in the control group showed a progressive increase in the use of dysfunctional and problem-focused coping strategies over time. The findings indicate that Solution-Focused Counseling significantly enhanced coping competence and adaptive coping strategies in the experimental group, although it did not produce measurable improvements in physiological or illness adaptation outcomes.