Cancer-related Posttraumatic growth and Posttraumatic stress disorder: how are they connected and what are their correlates?

PurposeCancer is a stressful life event that can lead to specific posttraumatic reactions. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Posttraumatic growth (PTG) are two main posttraumatic reactions that are related to each other, and both have different correlates.MethodsThe linearity of the relationship between PTG and PTSD as well as the different socio-demographic, cancer-related, emotional and psychological correlates were analyzed in patients with cancer (N = 126).ResultsThe relationship between PTG and PTSD was found to be more curvilinear than linear. PTSD was more strongly related to psychological factors (e.g., anxious preoccupation, hope-helplessness, resilience) while PTG was strongly related to existential factors (e.g., self-transcendence, religiosity).ConclusionThe results show that cancer-related PTSD and PTG are specifically related constructs which are related differently to particular correlates.

Occupational Stress and its Relation to Grave’s Disease

Background: Graves’ disease is an autoimmune thyroid gland disease that causes increased activity of the thyroid hormones. But, the mechanism by which the autoantibodies are generated is still unclear. Some theory suggests that daily life stress may be a risk factor that triggers Graves’ disease. The aim of this report is to enrol a systematically searching in order to get an answer about the risk factor of the Grave’s disease and the prevention measure.Methods: In this case report, a 47-year-old career woman with prominent occupational stress was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Literature searching was done on database such as Pubmed, Cochrane Library, and Science Direct with occupational stress, stressful life event, and Graves’ disease as the keywords. One article was selected and critically appraised. Results: One case-control study showed that patients with Graves’ disease had odds ratio (OR) of having stressful life events as big as 8.59; 95%CI = 2.35-20.80, and the number needed to harm (NNH) is 2.35.Conclusion: Occupational stress is a prominent risk factor for developing Graves’ disease. However, this is based on one article

Genes, beats and traits: A multi-marker exploration of personality

<p>This research explores associations between genetic polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin systems (DAT1, DRD4 and 5HTTLPR polymorphisms), physiological and environmental variables and multiple personality traits. 113 participants were genotyped, participated in a stressful cross-cultural negotiation exercise and completed personality scales while wearing heart-rate monitors. Heart-rate variability and stressful life events were associated with conscientiousness and neuroticism traits. Contradicting previous research, no reliable gene x stressful life event interactions were found. Gender and ethnicity masked genetic effects on neurotic and sensation-seeking traits, particularly for DAT1 and 5HTTLPR. The DRD4-7R allele was associated with higher agreeableness and lower neuroticism, and contrary to prediction, with lower sensation-seeking. Gene-trait relations are complex, interactionist and multiply-determined, suggesting that personality variation is influenced by – but not reducible to – genetic variation.</p>

Genes, beats and traits: A multi-marker exploration of personality

<p>This research explores associations between genetic polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin systems (DAT1, DRD4 and 5HTTLPR polymorphisms), physiological and environmental variables and multiple personality traits. 113 participants were genotyped, participated in a stressful cross-cultural negotiation exercise and completed personality scales while wearing heart-rate monitors. Heart-rate variability and stressful life events were associated with conscientiousness and neuroticism traits. Contradicting previous research, no reliable gene x stressful life event interactions were found. Gender and ethnicity masked genetic effects on neurotic and sensation-seeking traits, particularly for DAT1 and 5HTTLPR. The DRD4-7R allele was associated with higher agreeableness and lower neuroticism, and contrary to prediction, with lower sensation-seeking. Gene-trait relations are complex, interactionist and multiply-determined, suggesting that personality variation is influenced by – but not reducible to – genetic variation.</p>

Predicting Effective Adaptation to Breast Cancer to Help Women to BOUNCE Back: study protocol for a multicenter clinical pilot (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Despite the continued progress of medicine, dealing with breast cancer is becoming a major socio-economic challenge, particularly due to its increasing incidence. The ability to better manage and adapt to the entire care process depends not only on the type of cancer, but also on the patient's socio-demographic and psychological characteristics and on the social environment in which a person lives and interacts. Therefore, it is important to understand which factors may affect or booster a successful adaptation to breast cancer. To our knowledge, no studies have been already performed on the combination effect of multiple psychological, biological and functional variables in predicting the patient’s ability to bounce back from the stressful life event, such as a breast cancer diagnosis. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study will be to build a quantitative mathematical model of factors associated with optimal adjustment capacity to cancer and study resilience through the cancer continuum in a population of breast cancer patients. METHODS 660 women with breast cancer will be recruited in five European cancer centers: the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Italy, the Rabin Medical Center and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center coordinated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) in Israel, the Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) in Finland, and the Champalimaud Foundation (CHAMP) in Portugal. Biomedical and psychosocial variables will be collected using the Noona Healthcare platform. Psychosocial, socio-demographic, lifestyle and clinical variables will be measured every 3 months, starting from pre-surgery assessment (baseline) to 18 months (M18) after surgery. RESULTS Data collection is still ongoing. CONCLUSIONS The present study will provide a predictive model able to describe individual resilience and identify different resilience’s trajectories along the care process. The results will allow the implementation of tailored interventions according to the patient’s need, supported by e-health technologies. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05095675

Psychiatric comorbidities in dermatitis artefacta: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Dermatitis artefacta, also known as factitious or factitial dermatitis, is a rare and difficult-to-treat condition characterized by self-inflicted skin lesions. Despite the well-documented psychological disturbances that characterize this condition, little is known about the relative frequency of specific psychiatric disorders in this patient group. The current systematic review was undertaken to address this gap in our knowledge and was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. The PubMed and Scopus databases were searched using the terms “dermatitis artefacta,” “factitious dermatitis,” and “factitial dermatitis” in combination with “psychiatry,” “psychiatric diagnosis,” “psychiatric disorder,” “mental illness,” “depression,” and “anxiety.” After screening a total of 215 citations, a total of 11 papers were included in the final review. All the included studies were of low to very low quality as per the GRADE guidelines, and there was substantial heterogeneity among them (I2 = 50.4). It was observed that 46.2% of patients (95% CI: 35.4–57.4%) with dermatitis artefacta had a comorbid psychiatric disorder, with the most common diagnoses being depression, somatoform disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorder, and intellectual disability. About 20.1% of patients refused a psychiatric evaluation, while 40.9% reported a significant stressful life event. These results suggest that a significant proportion of patients with dermatitis artefacta suffer from psychiatric disorders, which may be related to their self-infliction of lesions either biologically or psychologically. Treatment of these disorders may lead to a partial or complete improvement in their dermatological condition. A sensitive, non-confrontational approach is essential when evaluating these patients to minimize the chances of refusal and improve patient compliance.

Emotional, Psychological, and Cognitive Changes Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Is There an Advantage of Being an Older Adult?

Introduction: The study examined age-related differences between young and older adults’ emotional and psychological experience as well as cognitive functioning throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.Materials and Methods: Participants were interviewed by phone when confined at home during the national lockdown (T1-May 2020; N = 138 young adults; N = 119 older adults) and after the first wave of contagions, when restrictions were discarded (T2-September 2020; N = 52 young adults; N = 59 older adults). A sub-sample also participated in a third assessment (T3-December 2020). Participants completed questionnaires assessing their emotional and psychological functioning (i.e., positive and negative affect, perceived social and emotional loneliness, resilience) along with memory tasks (Backward Digit Span task and words list recall).Results: Although individuals reported less positive and more negative emotions during the lockdown than at T2, results showed that older adults displayed overall fewer negative emotions and greater resilience than young adults. The latter were those who reported feeling more emotionally lonely when compared to their older counterpart during the lockdown than afterward. Older adults’ advantage in emotional and psychological functioning was also confirmed 7 months after the national lockdown. Only age-related differences in favor of young adults for the memory tasks were found. The measures of interest were also susceptible to mood and/or concerns of COVID-19 effects.Discussion: These findings further highlight the age-related advantage of older adults managing the emotional and psychological experience even when facing an unexpected, prolonged, and unpredictable, stressful life event such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Partner loss and its effect on frailty trajectories: results from the 13-year follow-up Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

BackgroundFrailty is a geriatric syndrome closely linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes. Thus, it is important to identify factors associated with the development of frailty. It was the aim of this study to examine, if, and to what extent partner loss, a highly stressful life event, affects frailty trajectories of community dwelling adults aged 50 or older.MethodsUsing six waves of panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we investigated the effect of partner loss on frailty trajectories estimating growth curve models. Our sample included 183 502 observations of 83 494 community-dwelling individuals aged 50 or older from 21 European countries collected between 2004 and 2017. Frailty was measured using the validated sex-specific SHARE-Frailty-Instrument including muscular weakness, unintended weight loss, decrease in walking capacity, low physical activity and exhaustion.ResultsOur sample contained 79 874 participants who lived in a partnership during their entire observational period and 3620 participants who lost their partner during their observational period. Both men (β=0.184 (95% CI: −0.017 to 0.386), p=0.073) and women (β=0.237 (95% CI: 0.106 to 0.369), p<0.001) showed initial effects of partner loss on frailty, but while only women gradually recovered over time (β=−0.023 (95% CI: −0.039 to −0.008), p=0.002), among men, the effect of partner loss persisted (β<0.001 (95% CI: −0.029 to 0.029), p=0.998).ConclusionThis study revealed that partner loss is followed by elevated frailty. However, while women’s frailty tended to recover from partner loss over time, men’s frailty remained elevated. Notable individual differences in the response of frailty trajectories to partner loss suggest the existence of effect modifiers.

A study on psychological morbidity of cancer patients and chronic kidney disease patients

Background: Cancer disease is a dangerous illness that causes about12% of deaths throughout the world. Increasing to 54% of all deaths by the year 2025. Recent international data show that there were 10 million new cases, 6 million deaths, and 22 million people living with cancer in 2000. In addition to physiological problems, the patient faces at large too many inherent problems by the family and society. Methods: A Hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out among the people aged 18 to 70 years from the selected study area. The sample size was determined based on a prior study of the mean score of these three psychological variables anxiety, depression, stress. data was collected by using hospital anxiety depression scale and presumptive stressful life event scale.Results: In our study, The percentage of mean depression and stress level before 1 year were higher (11.49±2.76) (64.12±85.28) in CKD patients than cancer patients (10.86±2.51) (39.57±56.60), and the difference was found to be statistically significant (t=2.119, p=0.035) (Z=2.327, p=0.020) but the mean percentage of anxiety (7.43±3.21) and stress during past 1 year (317.46±87.95) were higher in cancer patients than CKD patients (5.63±2.82) (266.01±87.26). Conclusions: Based on our findings we may conclude that cancer patients have inclined to various psychological problems particularly depression, anxiety, and stress as compared to CKD. The depression and stress level before 1 year in CKD patients were more than that of cancer patients but anxiety and stress level during past 1 year was found more in cancer patients than that of CKD patients. Cancer thoroughly breaks the patients psychologically as well as biologically.