Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Feb 19, 2024; 14(2): 199-203
Published online Feb 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i2.199
Therapeutic approach to emotional reactions accompanied with thermal skin injury – from basic to epidemiological research
Bojana Krstic, Milos Krstic, Dragica Selakovic, Nemanja Jovicic, Gvozden Rosic
Bojana Krstic, Milos Krstic, Dragica Selakovic, Gvozden Rosic, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac 34000, Serbia
Nemanja Jovicic, Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac 34000, Serbia
Author contributions: Krstic B, Selakovic D, Rosic G designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Krstic M and Jovicic N contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Krstic B, Krstic M, Selakovic D, Jovicic N, Rosic G contributed to the writing, and editing the manuscript, and review of the literature.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Bojana Krstic, Milos Krstic, Dragica Selakovic, Nemanja Jovicic and Gvozden Rosic have nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gvozden Rosic, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Svetozara Markovica 69, Kragujevac 34000, Serbia. grosic@medf.kg.ac.rs
Received: October 9, 2023
Peer-review started: October 9, 2023
First decision: December 6, 2023
Revised: December 15, 2023
Accepted: January 24, 2024
Article in press: January 24, 2024
Published online: February 19, 2024
Processing time: 119 Days and 22.1 Hours
Abstract

In this editorial, we discuss the status of a therapeutic approach to emotional reactions accompanying thermal skin injuries. Burns are considered a major health problem, as well as an economic and social problem, with potentially devastating and life-changing consequences. They affect a wide range of patients with different damage mechanisms, varied depths, and localizations of the burns. The most common are thermal burns, with more than 11 million occurrences annually according to the World Health Organization data. Thermal skin injuries are among the most tragic and catastrophic injuries, almost unsurpassed in terms of severity, morbidity, and mortality, as well as functional, aesthetic, social, economic, and psychological consequences. Burn survivors face stress, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, body deformity, social isolation, unemployment, financial burden, and family problems. The advances in acute burn care have allowed researchers and physicians to pay more attention to other effects of burns, focusing on psychological consequences in particular. Apart from the significant improvements in routine protocols, it seems useful to take care of psychological disturbances that occur simultaneously but may emerge as the most lasting outcome of those injuries. In that sense, various standards and additional approaches may be involved to achieve overall recovery.

Keywords: Thermal skin injury; Anxiety; Depression; Psychological consequences of burns

Core Tip: This editorial aimed to allow updated principle information considering the psychological consequences of burns by means of their medical, social, and economic significance in the population. Also, it aimed to bring some new insight into the potential therapeutic advances using alternative and adjuvant therapies. In that manner, we offered some evidence for the benefits of using a new methodology in the treatment of one of the most lasting consequences induced by thermal skin injury.