This paper presents a discussion on coping with traumatic spinal cord injury according to the contemporary literature, which points to four groups of influent variables on coping with spinal cord injury: (a) variables inherent to the disability, such as injury severity; (b) variables inherent to the organism itself, such as education and internal locus of control; (c) proximal environment, such as available health services and job access; and (d) cultural context, such as present law and social prejudice. The literature suggests that well succeeded adaptation to traumatic spinal cord injury is more related to the environmental resources and psychosocial variables than to the injury characteristics. The variables affecting the coping process and the success adapting to the lesion allow one to suggest priority focus for rehabilitation.
spinal cord injury; rehabilitation; coping; adaptation