Research
For my teacher studies in Psychology I did some scientific research about the orphan disease “Eagle-Syndrome” and its social consequences at the University of Vienna. I wanted to write a thesis that has a personal meaning to me and probably also to others. While being abroad for my medical treatments I connected with a lot of patients on the Internet, who shared my problems. Most of them suffered 24/7. I read tragic strokes of desperate persons who were in that much pain that they completely lost themselves, had no social life, could not work or take care of their children, or even considered to quit… I was deeply concerned. So when I managed to get back to University after my 1-year-long health-related break, I started to reach out to those affected people and collected data. I wanted to make the suffering visible.
Actually it’s the first thesis worldwide, that investigates the socio-psychological impacts of this illness.
Another particularity lies in the huge demographic expansion: Patients from 5 different continents took part in it. The aim of the study was to shed light on the difficulties and challenges faced by chronically ill people (ES & TMD patients), and thus to generate more (social) acceptance. Hopefully through educational work as well as different clinical approaches an improvement can be done.
If you are interested in the quantitative study, you can read it in German or in English. Feedback is highly appreciated.
English Version
If you want to see pictures or read my blog post about my studies, click here.
And here you can find my article for “Humans of University of Vienna” about studying with(out) barriers.