Intense Sadness Research Articles

Healing grief: Insights from relatives of cancer patients with prolonged grief. The FamiLife multicenter qualitative study.

Prolonged grief is a chronic and debilitating condition that affects millions of persons worldwide. The aim of this study was to use a qualitative approach to better understand how relatives with prolonged grief disorder perceive what does or not help them and whether they were able to make recommendations. Participants were all relatives of deceased patients admitted to 26 palliative care units involved in the FamiLife study; relatives were included if diagnosed with prolonged grief symptoms (i.e., Inventory Complicated Grief (ICG) questionnaire with a cut-off >25), and volunteered to participate. Semi-directed telephone interviews were conducted by psychologists between 6 and 12 months after the patient's death. The interviews were open-ended, without a pre-established grid, then transcribed and analyzed using a thematic approach. Overall, 199/608 (32.7%) relatives were diagnosed with prolonged grief symptoms, i.e., with an ICG score >25, and 39/199 (20%) agreed to be interviewed. The analysis yielded 4 themes: (1) the experience of mourning: intense sadness and guilt (reported by 35/39 participants, 90%); (2) aggravating factors (38/39, 97%): feeling unprepared for death and loneliness, presence of interpersonal barriers to adjustment, external elements hindering the mourning progress; (3) facilitating factors (39/39, 100%): having inner strength or forcing oneself to get better, availability of social and emotional support; and (4) the suggestions grieving relatives had to alleviate the grief burden (36/39, 92%). The analysis enabled to identify 5 suggestions for relieving the grief burden: improving communication, developing education about death and grief, maintaining contact, offering psychological support, and choosing the right time for the palliative care team to contact the relatives. This study revealed how bereaved relatives experienced the help provided by the healthcare teams, their representations, and what could be improved. These findings could be used to design intervention studies.

Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis of a Turkish Sadness Verb Hüzünlen-

This study provides a semantic and pragmatic analysis of the Turkish verb "hüzünlen-" which conveys the meaning of sadness. Following a corpus-driven approach, query sequences from the Turkish National Corpus (TNC) were analysed according to the Extended Lexical Units model proposed by Stubbs (2005). In this context, 284 query sequences found in real spoken and written language samples were examined to determine the lexical profile of the verb "hüzünlen-." The aim of the study is to reveal the semantic and pragmatic usage differences of the verb "hüzünlen-" compared to other verbs expressing sadness. In this regard, the syntactic features, collocational tendencies, and context-dependent semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the verb "hüzünlen-" were thoroughly investigated. As a corpus-driven study, this research is the result of an inductive examination. The study demonstrated that the lexical framework of the verb "hüzünlen-" implies a sudden, intense sadness often related to past events and circumstances. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the cultural and linguistic features of expressing sadness in Turkish, as well as to comprehending the cognitive aspects of the emotion of sadness. Furthermore, the results of the study offer significant insights into how expressions of sadness are shaped in linguistic and cultural contexts in Turkish, allowing for a broader perspective on the linguistic representation of sadness. This research suggests that the verb "hüzünlen-" should be examined not only in Turkish but also in comparison with similar emotional expressions in other languages. Thus, it can contribute to understanding the universal and culture-specific features of language and emotion.

How shared suffering bonded Britons witnessing the Queen’s funeral

Previous research suggests that sharing emotionally intense experiences with others, for example by undergoing dysphoric collective rituals together, can lead to “identity fusion,” a visceral feeling of oneness that predicts group cohesion and self-sacrifice for the group. In this pre-registered research, we provide the first quantitative investigation of identity fusion following participation in a national funeral, surveying 1632 members of the British public. As predicted, individuals reporting intense sadness during Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral exhibited higher levels of identity fusion and pro-group commitment, as evidenced by generosity pledges to a British Monarchist charity. Also consistent with our hypotheses, feelings of unity in grief and emotional sharedness during the event mediated the relationship between sadness intensity and pro-group commitment. These findings shed light on importance of collective rituals in fostering group cohesion, cooperation, and the dynamics of shared emotional experiences within communities.

SUICIDAL NARRATIVE IN KATHLEEN GLASGOW’S GIRL IN PIECES

This research breaks down into two main goals: first, it aims to reveal the suicidal acts of the characters in Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces; second, it will examine the way in which the characters' suicidal narrative is constructed. The Sigmund Freud psychoanalytic theory and narratology were employed in this study to address the research objectives. Girl in Pieces, a novel by Kathleen Glasgow, serves as the data source for this qualitative investigation. This study demonstrates how the interaction between outside factors and internal conflicts illuminates the reasons behind suicide. The presence of ambivalent emotions, the impact of the superego's influence, and the regular reaction of loss to the withdrawal of libido caused the complex five characters to experience melancholy and mourning. This condition demonstrates how the novel's suicidal narrative is represented by the characters' psychological suffering. The manifestation of melancholy and its effects highlight the crucial role the superego plays in encouraging self-destructive behavior. The superego functions as a metaphorical "Thanatos," driving people toward self-destruction, including the potential for suicide, because of its punitive nature and internalized critical voice. With its intense sadness, self-loathing, and conflicting feelings about oneself, melancholia seriously jeopardizes people's wellbeing. The weight of melancholy and the destructive influence of the superego draw attention to how dangerous this mental state is.

Robots with tears can convey enhanced sadness and elicit support intentions.

The behaviour of shedding tears is a unique human expression of emotion. Human tears have an emotional signalling function that conveys sadness and a social signalling function that elicits support intention from others. The present study aimed to clarify whether the tears of robots have the same emotional and social signalling functions as human tears, using methods employed in previous studies conducted on human tears. Tear processing was applied to robot pictures to create pictures with and without tears, which were used as visual stimuli. In Study 1, the participants viewed pictures of robots with and without tears and rated the intensity of the emotion experienced by the robot in the picture. The results showed that adding tears to a robot's picture significantly increased the rated intensity of sadness. Study 2 measured support intentions towards a robot by presenting a robot's picture with a scenario. The results showed that adding tears to the robot's picture also increased the support intentions indicating that robot tears have emotional and social signalling functions similar to those of human tears.

Middle and High School Students Who Take Care of Siblings, Parents, and Grandparents: Associations With School Engagement, Belonging, and Well-Being

This partnership-based study identified how many middle and high school students take care of parents, siblings, and grandparents at home, via student surveys across Rhode Island public schools (N = 48,508; 46% White non-Latinx; 21% Latinx; 47% girls). Further, we investigated how students’ caregiving for family related to their school engagement, belonging, and emotional well-being. A sizable proportion of students reported caring for family for part (29%) or most of the day (7%). Girls and Black, Asian, Latinx, Native, and multiracial youth were more likely to care for family, compared to boys and White non-Latinx youth. Caregiving students from all demographics were more likely to experience intense sadness compared to noncaregivers, revealing a need to support caregiving youth in schools. In addition, caregiving girls reported lower levels of school engagement and school belonging. However, caregiving for part of the day was related to greater belonging among Black and Native youth.

The Neural Correlates of the Recognition of Emotional Intensity Deficits in Major Depression: An ERP Study.

Deficits in facial emotional intensity recognition have been associated with social cognition in patients with major depression. The study examined multiple event-related potential (ERP) components in patients with major depression and investigated the relationships between ERPs, social cognition, and clinical features. Thirty-one patients met DSM-IV diagnosis of depression and 31 healthy participants completed the emotion intensity recognition task (EIRT), while ERPs were recorded. Data on ERP components (P100, N170, P200, and P300) were analyzed. The behavioral results showed that patients with major depression performed worse on EIRT, including all six categories of emotions (sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise, anger, and fear), compared to healthy participants. The ERP results showed that patients with major depression exhibited higher P100 amplitudes for sad and happy faces than healthy participants; P300 amplitudes induced by sad and surprise faces were also higher than in healthy participants, mainly in the central and temporal lobes. A positive correlation was found between sadness intensity scores and P100 amplitudes in patients with major depression. Patients with major depression are biased in their identification of facial expressions indicating emotional intensity. Specifically, they have emotional biases in the early and late stages of cognitive processing, mainly in the form of sensitivity to sad stimuli. It may lead to a persistent rumination of sadness that is detrimental to the remission of depression. Additionally, patients with major depression devote different amounts of cognitive resources for different intensities of sad faces during the preconscious stage of cognitive processing. The more intense their perception of sadness, the more cognitive resources they devote. Therefore, the assessment of the intensity of facial expressions is an important research topic, with clinical implications on social cognitive function in patients with major depression.

Recognition of Emotion with Intensity from Speech Signal Using 3D Transformed Feature and Deep Learning

Speech Emotion Recognition (SER), the extraction of emotional features with the appropriate classification from speech signals, has recently received attention for its emerging social applications. Emotional intensity (e.g., Normal, Strong) for a particular emotional expression (e.g., Sad, Angry) has a crucial influence on social activities. A person with intense sadness or anger may fall into severe disruptive action, eventually triggering a suicidal or devastating act. However, existing Deep Learning (DL)-based SER models only consider the categorization of emotion, ignoring the respective emotional intensity, despite its utmost importance. In this study, a novel scheme for Recognition of Emotion with Intensity from Speech (REIS) is developed using the DL model by integrating three speech signal transformation methods, namely Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), Short-time Fourier Transform (STFT), and Chroma STFT. The integrated 3D form of transformed features from three individual methods is fed into the DL model. Moreover, under the proposed REIS, both the single and cascaded frameworks with DL models are investigated. A DL model consists of a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Time Distribution Flatten (TDF) layer, and Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (Bi-LSTM) network. The 3D CNN block extracts convolved features from 3D transformed speech features. The convolved features were flattened through the TDF layer and fed into Bi-LSTM to classify emotion with intensity in a single DL framework. The 3D transformed feature is first classified into emotion categories in the cascaded DL framework using a DL model. Then, using a different DL model, the intensity level of the identified categories is determined. The proposed REIS has been evaluated on the Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS) benchmark dataset, and the cascaded DL framework is found to be better than the single DL framework. The proposed REIS method has shown remarkable recognition accuracy, outperforming related existing methods.

Special Report: How to Work With Patients Using Problem-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapies

Special Report: How to Work With Patients Using Problem-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapies

Mental health status of dentists during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BackgroundThe effect of coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) on the mental health status of dentists has been studied in various studies. The aim of this study was to review the mental health status of dentists during COVID‐19 pandemic.MethodsEnglish databases including PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were systematically searched till July 2021. Studies that examined the mental health status of dentists during COVID‐19 pandemic were included. The heterogeneity of articles was assessed with the Cochran Test and I 2 statistics. The prevalence rates of anxiety, fear, sadness, concern, and anger were calculated using the random‐effect model.FindingsOf 560 initial searched articles, 15 articles were eligible to include. The prevalence of anxiety, fear of carrying the infection, fear of getting infected, fear of getting quarantined, and fear of dying people by COVID‐19 were 64%, 92%, 85%, 61%, and 65%, respectively. The distribution frequency of light, moderate, and intense sadness was 22%, 25%, and 30%, respectively; light, moderate, and intense anger was 21%, 14%, and 23%, respectively; light, moderate, and intense concern was 30%, 30%, and 34%, respectively; light, moderate, and intense fear was 38%, 24%, and 15%, respectively.ConclusionFear of COVID‐19 and anxiety was very high among dentists. A significant proportion of dentists had moderate to intense COVID‐19‐associated sadness, concern, and anger. Providing educational content along with providing the necessary personal protective equipment and extensive vaccinations will help maintain the mental health of dentists and provide better quality services.

Factors affecting the emotional wellbeing of women and men who experience miscarriage in hospital settings: a scoping review

BackgroundMiscarriage can be a devastating event for women and men that can lead to short- and long-term emotional distress. Studies have reported associations between miscarriage and depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder in women. Men can also experience intense grief and sadness following their partner’s miscarriage. While numerous studies have reported hospital-related factors impacting the emotional wellbeing of parents experiencing miscarriage, there is a lack of review evidence which synthesises the findings of current research.AimsThe aim of this review was to synthesise the findings of studies of emotional distress and wellbeing among women and men experiencing miscarriage in hospital settings.MethodsA systematic search of the literature was conducted in October 2020 across three different databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE and PsycInfo) and relevant charity organisation websites, Google, and OpenGrey. A Mixed Methods appraisal tool (MMAT) and AACODS checklist were used to assess the quality of primary studies.ResultsThirty studies were included in this review representing qualitative (N = 21), quantitative (N = 7), and mixed-methods (N = 2) research from eleven countries. Findings indicated that women and men’s emotional wellbeing is influenced by interactions with health professionals, provision of information, and the hospital environment. Parents’ experiences in hospitals were characterised by a perceived lack of understanding among healthcare professionals of the significance of their loss and emotional support required. Parents reported that their distress was exacerbated by a lack of information, support, and feelings of isolation in the aftermath of miscarriage. Further, concerns were expressed about the hospital environment, in particular the lack of privacy.ConclusionWomen and men are dissatisfied with the emotional support received in hospital settings and describe a number of hospital-related factors as exacerbators of emotional distress.Implications for practiceThis review highlights the need for hospitals to take evidence-informed action to improve emotional support services for people experiencing miscarriage within their services.

Meaningful endings and mixed emotions: The double-edged sword of reminiscence on good times.

Meaningful endings lead people to experience mixed emotions, but it is unclear why. We hypothesized that it is in part because meaningful endings lead people to reminisce on good times. In Study 1, college students who took part in our study on their graduation day (vs. a typical day) reported having spent more time that day reminiscing on good times. Moreover, reminiscence on good times partially mediated the effect of graduation on happiness, sadness, and mixed emotions. In Study 2, we asked undergraduates to reminisce on good (vs. ordinary) times from high school and found that reminiscence on good times elicited happiness, sadness, and mixed emotions. In Study 3, we found that reminiscing on good times that were not (vs. were) repeatable elicited especially intense sadness and mixed emotions. Taken together, results indicate that reminiscing on good times, especially good times gone, elicits mixed emotions and that these emotional consequences help explain why meaningful endings elicit mixed emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Sensitivity to Emotion Intensity and Recognition of Emotion Expression in Neurotypical Children.

This study assessed two components of face emotion processing: emotion recognition and sensitivity to intensity of emotion expressions and their relation in children age 4 to 12 (N = 216). Results indicated a slower development in the accurate decoding of low intensity expressions compared to high intensity. Between age 4 and 12, children discriminated high intensity expressions better than low ones. The intensity of expression had a stronger impact on overall face expression recognition. High intensity happiness was better recognized than low intensity up to age 11, while children 4 to 12 had difficulties discriminating between high and low intensity sadness. Our results suggest that sensitivity to low intensity expressions acts as a complementary mediator between age and emotion expression recognition, while this was not the case for the recognition of high intensity expressions. These results could help in the development of specific interventions for populations presenting socio-cognitive and emotion difficulties.

Emotion regulation in context: A naturalistic study of emotion regulation in response to everyday happy and sad memories during dysphoria

Background and objectivesEffective emotion regulation is an important marker of mental health. However, only a sparse number of studies have examined emotion regulation within the context of different emotion type and intensity levels among individuals with elevated depressive symptoms. MethodWe investigated emotion regulation in response to happiness and sadness experienced in the context of everyday memories of 23 dysphoric and 20 non-depressed participants. Participants completed a diary indicating the intensity of these emotions when thinking about a personal memory, as well as their employment of five emotion regulation strategies at that moment. ResultsMultilevel models indicated that dysphoric and non-depressed individuals differed in how they employed three emotion regulation strategies depending on the intensity of the emotions. Relative to non-depressed individuals, dysphoric individuals employed greater brooding, expressive suppression, and memory suppression when experiencing less intense happiness, and employed more brooding for more intense sadness. These effects were maintained after controlling for habitual emotion regulation, and controlling for the opposite concurrent emotion. The findings suggest that dysphoric individuals adjust the use of emotion regulation strategies differently from non-depressed individuals depending on the intensity level of happiness and sadness experienced. These patterns may be indicative of reduced emotion regulation flexibility or fear of emotional shifts. LimitationsThe sample consisted of mostly young women. ConclusionsClinical implications, particularly concerning emotion-focused interventions, are discussed.

Discovering the Potentials of Medicinal Mushrooms in Combating Depression - A Review.

Depression is the most common form of mental illness and the major cause of disability worldwide. Symptoms of depression, including feelings of intense sadness and hopelessness, may occur after a specific event or in response to a gradual decline in health and functional status, often associated with aging. Current therapies for treating these symptoms include antidepressant drugs, counseling and behavioral therapy. However, antidepressant drugs are associated with mild to severe adverse effects, which has prompted the need for better treatment options. Medicinal mushrooms are valuable sources of food and medicine and are increasingly being used as supplements or as alternative medicines in standard healthcare. Numerous studies have provided insights into the neuroprotective effects of medicinal mushrooms, which are attributed to their antioxidant, anti-neuroinflammatory, cholinesterase inhibitory and neuroprotective properties. In this review, we comprehensively examine the role of these medicinal mushrooms in the treatment of depression. However, to apply these natural products in clinical settings, the therapeutic agent needs to be properly evaluated, including the active ingredients, the presence of synergistic effects, efficient extraction methods, and stabilization of the active ingredients for delivery into the body as well as crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Computer-aided therapeutic diagnosis for anorexia

BackgroundAnorexia nervosa is a clinical disorder syndrome of the wide spectrum without a fully recognized etiology. The necessary issue in the clinical diagnostic process is to detect the causes of this disease (e.g., my body image, food, family, peers), which the therapist gradually comes to by verifying assumptions using proper methods and tools for diagnostic process. When a person is diagnosed with anorexia, a clinician (a doctor, a therapist or a psychologist) proposes a therapeutic diagnosis and considers the kind of treatment that should be applied. This process is also continued during therapeutic diagnosis. In both cases, it is recommended to apply computer-aided tools designed for testing and confirming the assumptions made by a psychologist. The paper aims to present the computer-aided therapeutic diagnosis method for anorexia. The proposed method consists of 4 stages: free statements of a patient about his/her body image, the general sentiment analysis of statement based on Recurrent Neural Network, assessment of the intensity of five basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear and disgust (using the Nencki Affective Word List and conversion of words to their basic form), and the assessment of particular areas of difficulties—the sentiment analysis based on the dictionary approach was applied.ResultsThe sentiment analysis of a document achieved 72% and 51% of effectiveness, respectively, for RNN and dictionary-based methods. The intensity of sadness (emotion) occurring within the dictionary method is differentiated between control and research group at the level of 10%.ConclusionThe quick access to the sentiment analysis of a statement on the image of patient’s body, emotions experienced by the patient and particular areas of difficulties of people prone to the anorexia nervosa disorders, may help to establish the diagnosis in a very short time and start an immediate therapy. The proposed automatic method helps to avoid patient’s aversions towards the therapy, which may include avoiding patient–therapist communication, talking about less essential topics, coming late for the sessions. These circumstances can guarantee promising prognosis for recovering.

Moral injury among Akan women: Lessons for culturally sensitive child welfare interventions

The experience of moral injury is of increased concern to child welfare professionals. This ethnographic study uses Akan (Ghanaian) women who are widowed and their children as an exemplary case study to consider the cultural shaping of moral injury, and implications for culturally-sensitive child welfare practice. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews. Twenty-one widows, 14 religious professionals providing services to widows, and one secular professional participated. Participants identified some morally injurious events and responses consistent with the Western literature, for example, events involving betrayal of widows and their children were associated with feelings of intense sadness, rage, and spiritual or existential crises. Other events and responses were culturally nuanced. Women’s vulnerability to morally injurious events was enhanced due to culturally-based gender roles, widowhood rituals and customary laws involving inheritance. In addition, these events were interpreted and experienced through Akan spirituality in which the self is comprised of the soul, spirit and body; and moral injury, or “soul killing,” involves the dissolution of this trinity and embitterment of the soul. The Akan cultural context also provided resources for healing. Akan women who were widowed articulated the empowerment and restoration they felt from coming together in a community both to address a common challenge (supporting themselves and their children financially), and to receive spiritual and psychosocial support from peers and professionals. This paper provides both a conceptual framework for the empirical examination of the cultural shaping of moral injury, and empirical data within a non-Western cultural context.

Caring for Dying Patients: Feelings, Thoughts, and Attitudes of Nursing Students, A Mixed Methods Study

Objective: It is thought that nursing students are not willing to participate in the complex care of dying patients. The aim of the study was to determine feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of nursing students regarding the care of dying patients. Material and Methods: A partially mixed concurrent dominant status design was used in the study. Focus group interviews were conducted to determine nursing students' feelings about and views of the care of dying patients. Five focus group interviews were conducted at the qualitative data collection stage. Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale was used to measure attitudes. Results: Four themes were identified in the qualitative data analysis: (1) feelings experienced while caring dying patients; (2) difficulties encountered while providing care to dying patients; (3) strategies of coping with the difficulties and (4) reasons for feeling incompetent in the care of dying patients. Nursing students reported they experienced intense sadness, desperation, and incompetence in the care of dying patients. The most common reasons for feeling incompetent were lack of experience, knowledge, and skill. Nursing students' mean total score on the Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale was 92.83±18.15. Conclusion: Nursing students were seen to have positive approach in the caring for dying patients, although they experienced difficulties and were often unable to cope with the situation. Nursing education curriculum for the care of dying patients should be included current training methods such as simulation and case-based learning to improve experience, confidence and competence of nursing students.

Social support modulates subjective and neural responses to sad mental imagery

Mental imagery related to the recent death of a loved one is associated with intense sadness and distress. Social relations, such as with one’s significant other, can regulate negative emotions and provide comfort, but the neural correlates of social comfort are largely unknown. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we examined brain responses to sad mental imagery and how these are modulated by holding hands with one’s romantic partner. We found that mental imagery of a recently deceased loved one was associated with increased reactivity in the dorsal striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, thalamus and cerebellum. Holding hands with one’s partner as compared to being alone or holding hands with a stranger provided subjective comfort and reduced neural reactivity in the dorsal striatum without affecting the vividness of the imagery. Our findings indicate an important role for the dorsal striatum in sad mental imagery and social comfort and suggest that tactile social support by one’s romantic partner regulates subjective distress through other processes than mere distraction from the mental imagery.

Bebeği Yenidoğan Yoğun Bakım Ünitesinde Tedavi Altında Olan Ebeveynlerin Yaşadıkları Psikososyal Sorunlar ve Başa Çıkma Yöntemlerinin Belirlenmesi: Niteliksel Bir Araştırma

Aim: Mothers of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are believed to have heightened distress. The aim of this study is determined to the psychosocial problems and the ways of coping mothers whose infants are under treatment in the newborn intensive care unit. Material and Methods: This is a descriptive study in which a qualitative method is used. 25 mothers whose infants are under treatment in the newborn intensive care unit at university hospital formed the working group. The data of the research was formed through Personal Information Form, semistructured Qualitative Interview Form. Interviews had performed using face to face interview method by researcher. Thematic analysis method was used to evaluate the data. Results: The average age of the mothers in the study is 29.24, 44% had graduated from high school. The admission diagnosis to the NICU was preterm infant, hyperbilirunemia and congenital diseases. Six main themes emerged in the research. These main themes are classed as; 1.To be a mother who left her baby in intensive care (Sub-themes: empty lap, maternity behind glass, taste of pain), 2.Sea of worry (sub-themes: What if, am I a criminal, unidentifying feelings) 3.Coping strategies, 4.Expectations, 5.Changes in family life, 6.Support systems. Conclusions: Mothers whose infants are in the newborn intensive care unit are experiencing intense sadness, guilt and anxiety. They are having trouble coping with these emotions. At the same time, mothers are negatively affected by changes in family life in this process. Mothers have support expectations from intensive care unit nurses and from their families.