Patients with physical disease and their family caregivers experience various types of stress in the course of treatment. These patients and their families require long-term psychological support that begins at diagnosis and covers the duration of treatment as well as the time after treatment. When providing emotional care to patients and their families, it is important to provide care while understanding the characteristics of each disease, including disease pathology, physical symptoms, type of treatment, and disease progression. In this study, we focused on representative diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. We clarified the stress/psychological characteristics unique to each disease and considered methods of support. In order to clarify the stressors unique to each disease, the physical symptoms and treatments (including side effects) of each must be understood. Moreover, for each disease, patients and their families are likely to feel anxiety about various uncertainties in their future, and each disease likely has some stressors in common with other diseases. In order to reduce stress in patients/families, the unique stressors of each disease should be understood, as well as the stressors common to all diseases. Moreover, multidisciplinary support that applies the expertise of different specialties is highly desired.
