It has been postulated that interventions aimed at specific disease- and treatment-related problems can diminish the stress of chronic disease in the adolescent. This report defines these problems in 28 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with advanced disease who participated in a multicentered, mutlidisciplinary study of the impact of nocturnal oxygen therapy on the progression of their disease. The patients were followed over a period of six months to three years. Over the period of follow-up, 8 of 28 died. They were repeatedly visited at home by a nurse who recorded the problems spontaneously discussed by the patient or family. The problems were divided into three major categories that were revealed in sequence over approximately one year. Initially, the problems discussed related to CF management, then to growth and development including daily activities, school/work, and sexuality, and ultimately, to stresses on family relationships. This provided a framework in which to tabulate the types of nursing interventions that may prove to be most effective in diminishing the stresses confronted by the CF young adult who is attempting to maintain normal growth and development in the presence of increasingly severe disease.