The current explorative study showed that there is a
strong relationship between illness perceptions and QoL.
More affected illness perceptions are correlated with more
impaired QoL parameters. This has also been observed in
patients after treatment for Cushing’s syndrome (20) and
in patients with various other diseases (23). This is a relevant
observation, because patients with acromegaly suffer
from impaired QoL even after long-term remission (2,
25, 26). The somatic and psychological factors that contribute
to decreased QoL are not well known but most
likely include musculoskeletal complaints (2), pituitary insufficiency
(27, 28), and the perception of the patients of
their disease. A recent study (3) showed that patients with
acromegaly use ineffective coping strategies. Additional
research is necessary to establish whether, and to which
extent, these illness perceptions and ineffective coping
strategies can be improved, which, in turn, might improve
QoL.