hronicity relative to a medical condition typically comes about C when medical science is unable to definitively treat or resolve the pathophysiology underlying the disorder. In such instances, medical science is often capable of offering patients therapeutic interventions that slow or impede the progress of the disease, ameliorate its symptoms, and maintain health and functional status at levels notably higher than would be found in an untreated course of the disease. Variability in the levels of disability associated with chronic illnesses, even within the same disease state, is great, however, and chronic medical conditions often have pervasively degrading effects on people's well-being and quality of life.Because definitive medical resolution of these conditions is impossible, if they are sufficiently distressing and debilitating chronic medical illnesses can overwhelm coping styles oriented toward more acute 59

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