Stressful Life Experiences Research Articles

Navigating and negotiating information and support: Experiences of first-time mothers.

To examine how first-time mothers in Nova Scotia identified and prioritised their own postpartum needs and where they went for information and support, inclusive of informal or formal programmes and services, social media, family and friends. The early postpartum period is an exciting, yet stressful life experience for first-time mothers. Mothers have often turned to families, friends and healthcare professionals for support and information; however, these social networks look differently today due to changes in institutional policies and postpartum healthcare practices, as well as the emergence of online resources and networks. There is currently limited understanding of how online resources have shifted mothers social networking practices and the degree to which programmes and resources are currently meeting the needs of mothers and families. Data were collected through focus group interviews in rural and urban Nova Scotia communities (n=19) and online electronic interviews (n=18). Data were analysed using feminist poststructuralism and discourse analysis to understand issues of inclusion and health equity for mothers and how relations of power were negotiated by first-time mothers in their search for support and information. Most participants were savvy as they critiqued, compared, navigated and negotiated advice and information from various sources, including health professionals, family, friends and online forums. However, they unanimously wanted face-to-face support with other mothers and healthcare professionals. Participants enacted their agency to critically analyse information and support to ensure it matched their own beliefs, values and practices. It is important to understand first-time mothers' practices and need for face-to-face support, as well as a need for further research with more diverse or marginalised demographics of mothers.

Infant mental health and institutionalised children

In this article, foundational ideas for investing in infant mental health as well as institutionalised children are explored. In infant mental health, there are three foundational ideas (1) stressful life experience can harm brain development during pregnancy and in the first months of life; (2) the parent-infant relationship can moderate at least in part the effects of this stress; (3) nurses and other health workers can support the infant-parent relationship and in that way promote healthy development of the child and of the adult the child will become. The author, Alexander Harrison, describes a model to support the parent-infant relationship in the form of training in infant mental health offered by a non-profit, Supporting Child Caregivers (SCC) to nurses and other health workers. In addition to the training, an SCC team is exploring the development of ‘nudges’, strategies to encourage the sustainability of the training. In working with institutionalised children, Monisha Nayar-Akhtar describes problems that are encountered in the care of the children and proposes alternative ways of viewing the care and management of these children. Drawing from cultural and social theorists, these ideas while acknowledging the insights provided by attachment theory, offer socio and culturally informed ideas that broaden our understanding of working with institutionalised children in the South Asian regions of the world.

The Life Experiences of Community Older Adults With Mental Illness in Taiwan: A Qualitative Study

Aims: The risk of mental illness and mental health problems is known to increase with aging, there is a continuing need for research and information about the daily life and care needs of elderly people with mental illness. The aim of this study was to examine the real-life experience of elderly outpatients with mental illnesses in Taiwan communities through in-depth interviews.Methods: A qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews of mentally ill elderly patients was conducted in 15 participants (3 men and 12 women, mean age = 74.67 years, SD = 10.04 years).Results: The willpower to survive and cope with aging and mental health problems was identified as the core category of the life experiences in the older adults in this study. The struggle with the stress of aging and mental health problems was categorized in life-experience terms as ‘bear the bitterness of life,’ ‘adhere to psychiatric treatment and use resources to cope with life’s stress,’ ‘maintain the willpower to survive’. Results of this study shown that although elderly patients in community have had many stressful life experiences and problems with mental illness, they will continue to show strength to coping with the problems of aging and mental illnesses.Conclusions: The elderly mental illness patients could coping with their problems, and maintain an active lifestyle, accept the reality and arrange life, and connect with the community. Therefore, health professionals should help elderly people find new strategies to maintain their mental health and to function in their communities.

Text Messaging (SMS) Helping Cancer Care in Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy Treatment: a Pilot Study.

Cancer treatment is an extremely stressful life experience that is accompanied by a range of psychological, social, physical, and practical difficulties. Cancer patients need to receive information that helps them to better understand the disease, assists them in decision-making, and helps them deal with treatment. Patients are interested in receiving such information. The degree of satisfaction with the information received has been associated with positive health outcomes, specifically regarding quality of life, severity of side effects, and psychological well-being. This study investigates a method of guiding cancer patients, in relation to outpatient chemotherapy treatment, using SMS (short message service) text messaging. A smartphone application called cHEmotHErApp was developed, and its primary function is to send out SMS text messages with guidance for self-care and emotional support for oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. Thus, the main objective of this study is to evaluate the acceptance and perception of patients of the receipt of these SMS messages, as well as to evaluate the possible benefits reported by the participants. Adult patients diagnosed with cancer, who started the first outpatient chemotherapy treatment scheme between August and November 2016 at the School Hospital (HE) of the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), were invited to participate in this pilot study. In total, 14 cancer patients were adherent to this study. Each of these patients received a daily text message on their cell phone with some guidance on encouraging self-care and emotional support. Patients reported that, because of the SMS text messages they received, they felt more confident in their treatment, felt more supported and encouraged, and that the text messages facilitated self-care. In addition, patients reported that the SMS text messages they received helped them to take better care of themselves and to continue further treatment.

The Impact of Sexual Abuse, Family Violence/Conflict, Spirituality, and Religion on Anger and Depressed Mood Among Adolescents.

Stressful life experiences, such as sexual abuse and family violence/conflict, relate to an increased risk of mental health problems. Religion and spirituality may prevent this negative impact, but religion and spirituality are lower among survivors of stressful life experiences. To explore this effect, we examined the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and family violence/conflict on anger and depressed mood. Survey data were collected from a large population-based sample of Icelandic adolescents (N = 7,365) on their stressful life experiences, religion, spirituality, and mental health. Survivors of stressful life experiences (sexual abuse or family violence/conflict) were significantly lower on religion and spirituality than others. A hierarchical linear regression showed that stressful life experiences contributed uniquely to higher levels of anger and depressed mood. Spirituality was associated with decreased anger and depressed mood. The religion of parents and peers was also associated with decreased anger. Religious participation, on the contrary, did not have a relationship with mental health outcomes. In addition, the negative association between spirituality and anger was stronger among survivors of sexual abuse than nonabused individuals. These results confirm previous research, indicating that survivors of stressful life experiences may experience less religion and spirituality. The results also extend existing knowledge by showing that spirituality may be even more beneficial among sexual abuse survivors, as a protective factor against anger. These findings can help in the minimization of the negative mental health impact of stressful life experiences.

Application of conservation of resource theory with camp refugees

This study based on Conservation of Resources theory provides and explanatory model to understand how resources in camps can help refugees to augment their resiliency level to face subsequent stressful life experiences. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 120 families for this project which took place in Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. Summary of the key themes identified in this study are availability of formal and informal resources; utilization of available support from formal and informal resources by refugee families; and resources accessibility and resource loss threat. Responses from participants’ utilization of support for daily stress, family conflict and health care showed that there is a synergy between these needs which requires a collaborative effort. In summary, results from this study indicate the need to expand our thoughts from prioritizing daily stress as the only resource refugees need to survive in host countries to include other less-obvious, yet clearly significant, needs.

Screening for Complicated Grief in a Military Mental Health Clinic.

Bereavement is one of the most common and stressful life experiences one can endure. Typical grief reactions follow a course of recovery in which individuals come to terms with the loss and resume functioning within weeks to months. However, for some, grief remains indefinitely distressing. Complicated Grief (CG) refers to significant chronic impairment that stems from bereavement. Military service members experience myriad factors that likely increase their risk for developing CG. Such factors include unique bonds between service members, exposure to constant and extreme levels of stress, multiple losses, separation from family and loved ones, witnessing/learning about sudden violent and traumatic deaths, and handling human remains. The aim of this project was to explore the practicality and efficiency of screening for CG within a busy military mental health clinic, and also explore relationships between contextual variables related to a death that might be associated with screening positive for CG. As part of a clinical needs assessment, patients from a single mental health clinic at Naval Medical Center San Diego completed a brief grief survey that asked if they experienced a death of a person close to them, collected metrics related to losses they have experienced and included validated screeners for CG (The Brief Grief Questionnaire [BGQ] and the Inventory for Complicated Grief [ICG]). No data concerning gender, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, diagnosis, or purpose of visit (i.e., initial or follow-up visit) were collected. Institutional review board approval was obtained. In our sample of service members presenting to an adult outpatient military mental health clinic, 43.5% reported having experienced a loss that still impacts them. Of that group, 61.7% screened positive on the BGQ, 59.2% screened positive on the ICG using a cutoff of 25, and 46.1% screened positive on the ICG using the cutoff of 30. These findings suggest that military service members seeking mental health treatment who endorsed experiencing a loss are at high risk for experiencing persisting, impairing grief. Additionally, patients who either lost a fellow service member and/or experienced loss while on deployment reported significantly higher scores on the BGQ or ICG than if they did not report those factors. Furthermore, correlations between total number of losses and ICG scores suggest that service members who experienced multiple losses may be more susceptible to CG symptoms. The findings from this preliminary investigation suggest that many service members receiving care in military mental health care are experiencing grief-related symptoms and distress, and a brief screen for grief can help capture many of those with grief related impairment. Research shows that CG needs to be directly targeted to treat its symptoms and associated impairment. We recommend that military mental health clinics consider adding some type of grief screener to their standard intake as well as making providers aware of the importance of monitoring potential grief reactions in their patients.

Maternal pregnancy C-reactive protein predicts offspring birth size and body composition in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines

The gestational milieu is an important influence on fetal development and long-term disease risk. Here we assess relationships between maternal pregnancy inflammation, indicated by C-reactive protein (CRP), and offspring anthropometric outcomes measured soon after birth. Data come from female participants (n=327, age 24.4-30.2 years) in a longitudinal study located in Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines. Between 2009 and 2014, pregnancy interviews (n=429) were conducted during which questionnaire and anthropometric data were obtained along with dried blood spot cards for CRP measurement. Offspring body weight, length, head circumference and five skinfold thickness measures were obtained soon after birth. Maternal pregnancy CRP was borderline (-1.11±0.64 days/log-mg/l; P<0.1) inversely related to gestational age at delivery, but did not increase the likelihood of preterm delivery. After adjusting for maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, height, pregnancy adiposity, age, parity and other covariates, CRP was significantly, inversely related to offspring body weight (-0.047±0.017 kg/log-mg/l), length (-0.259±0.092 cm/log-mg/l) and sum of skinfolds (-0.520±0.190 mm/log-mg/l) (all P<0.05), and borderline inversely related to offspring head circumference (-0.102±0.068 cm/log-mg/l; P<0.1). Notably, relationships were continuous across the full CRP range, and not limited to unusually high levels of inflammation. These findings point to an important role of maternal non-specific immune activation as a predictor of offspring birth outcomes. In light of evidence that early life microbial, nutritional and stress experiences influence adult inflammatory regulation, these findings point to inflammation as a potential pathway for the intergenerational transmission of maternal experience to offspring health.

The prevalence and outcomes of exposure to potentially traumatic stressful life events compared across patients with bipolar disorder and unipolar depression

This study examined the profile of stressful life experiences in patients with unipolar depression (UP) compared to bipolar disorder (BP), including their subsequent psychological impact and affirmation of post-traumatic stress symptoms. We studied 747 tertiary patients diagnosed with either a UP (n = 413) or BP condition (n = 334) according to a structured research interview and psychiatrist assessment. An online assessment collected additional study variables. Results showed that despite being younger in age, the BP group were more likely to have experienced 8 of the stressful life events, including childhood and adulthood abuse. However, both groups judged the consequential ‘impact’ of those events similarly. The BP group was significantly more likely than the UP group (45% vs. 36%) to affirm exposure to an extremely stressful event across their lifetime, resulting in 26.3% of the BP and 14.5% of the UP group affirming DSM-IV criteria for lifetime PTSD. The onset of DSM-IV-defined post-traumatic symptoms tended to occur in adulthood for both groups, with trauma often following the onset of the mood disorder. Thus, BP patients displayed greater vulnerability toward traumatic experiences and anxiety disorders, but reported a similar psychological impact in response to each stressor, compared with the UP group.

Characterization of Stress in Low-Income, Inner-City Mothers of Children with Poorly Controlled Asthma.

The goal of this longitudinal analysis was to characterize factors associated with the experience of life stress in low-income, inner-city mothers of minority children with high-risk asthma.Participants (n=276) reported on family demographics, child asthma control and healthcare utilization, social support, contemporary life difficulties (housing, finances, violence exposure) measured by the validated Crisis in Family Systems scale, and daily stress. Latent growth curve modeling examined predictors of life stress across 12months as a function of home and community difficulties, asthma-specific factors, and social support. Mothers were primarily single (73%), unemployed (55%), and living in extreme poverty with most (73%) reporting an annual family income <$20,000 (73%). The children were young (mean age=5.59, SD=2.17), African-American (96%), and had poorly controlled asthma (94%) at study enrollment. Higher daily stress was associated with financial difficulties, safety concerns in the home and community, and housing problems. Access to social support was consistently related to reduced stress. The only asthma-specific factor associated with life stress was healthcare utilization, with more emergency services for asthma related to higher daily stress. Findings underscore the clinical significance of assessing diverse home and community stressors and social support in low-income, inner-city caregivers of children with poorly controlled asthma.

The effect of COMT Val158Met and DRD2 C957T polymorphisms on executive function and the impact of early life stress.

IntroductionPrevious research has indicated that variation in genes encoding catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) and dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) may influence cognitive function and that this may confer vulnerability to the development of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia. However, increasing evidence suggests environmental factors such as early life stress may interact with genetic variants in affecting these cognitive outcomes. This study investigated the effect of COMT Val158Met and DRD2 C957T polymorphisms on executive function and the impact of early life stress in healthy adults.MethodsOne hundred and twenty‐two healthy adult males (mean age 35.2 years, range 21–63) were enrolled in the study. Cognitive function was assessed using Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery and early life stress was assessed using the Childhood Traumatic Events Scale (Pennebaker & Susman, 1988).Results DRD2 C957T was significantly associated with executive function, with CC homozygotes having significantly reduced performance in spatial working memory and spatial planning. A significant genotype–trauma interaction was found in Rapid Visual Information Processing test, a measure of sustained attention, with CC carriers who had experienced early life stress exhibiting impaired performance compared to the CC carriers without early life stressful experiences. There were no significant findings for COMT Val158Met.ConclusionsThis study supports previous findings that DRD2 C957T significantly affects performance on executive function related tasks in healthy individuals and shows for the first time that some of these effects may be mediated through the impact of childhood traumatic events. Future work should aim to clarify further the effect of stress on neuronal systems that are known to be vulnerable in mental health disorders and more specifically what the impact of this might be on cognitive function.

The Mediating Role of Integration of Loss in the Relationship Between Dissociation and Prolonged Grief Disorder.

Findings from the field of trauma have shown that there is a negative relationship between dissociation and integration of loss into the self-narrative. At the same time, an increasing amount of literature on grief has stressed the importance of an integrated self-narrative in the grieving process. Accordingly, the current study examined the possible mediating role played by the extent to which individuals have integrated their loss into their self-narrative in the relationship between dissociation and symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD). The Prolonged Grief Disorder Scale (PGD-13), the Outcome Questionnaire, the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and a sociodemographic questionnaire were administered to 66 individuals who had lost a loved one. The hypothesized mediation model of integration was confirmed. The effect of people's dissociative tendencies on their PGD symptoms seems to occur via the impairment of their ability to integrate the memory of their loss into their general autobiographical memory. Empirical and clinical implications are discussed.

Environmental risks outweigh dopaminergic genetic risks for alcohol use and abuse from adolescence through early adulthood

BackgroundAlcohol use is a primary public health concern, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Based on the rapidly growing field of gene-environment models, this study assessed the combined role of environmental and dopamine-related genetic correlates of early alcohol use and abuse. MethodsMultilevel growth models assessed trajectories of alcohol use and intoxication and ordered logistic regressions assessed alcohol use disorder among a sample of 12,437 youth from the nationally representative Add Health study who were followed from mid-adolescence through early adulthood. ResultsEndogenous and exogenous stressful life events and social norms supportive of alcohol use from parents and peers were significant predictors of alcohol use, intoxication, and alcohol use disorder, with consistent patterns across males and females. In contrast, a dopamine-system genetic risk score (GRS) was not associated with alcohol use trajectories nor alcohol use disorder in early adulthood, although weak connections emerged between the GRS and growth trajectories of intoxication, indicating that higher GRS predicted more frequent episodes of intoxication during the transition to adulthood but not during adolescence or later 20s. No evidence of gene-environment interactions emerged. ConclusionsResults extend a substantial body of prior research primarily assessing single genetic polymorphisms in the dopamine system, suggesting that dopaminergic GRSs may be associated with more problematic alcohol behaviors at some developmental periods, but further, that social norms and stressful life experiences are more consistent correlates of early and problematic alcohol use among youth. These environmental factors present potential targets for research manipulating contexts to identify causal pathways.

Stress Processes Linking Parent-Child Disconnection to Disease Risk in Young Adulthood: Amplification by Genotype.

Previous studies have documented that early stressful family relationships influence subsequent stressful life circumstances and health outcomes over the life course. Less is known, however, about whether stressful parent-child relationships increase the influence of proximal stressors on youth health operating as a stress-sensitizing life context, and individual genetic variations have effects on these developmental processes. Informed by life course stress process theory, which focuses on the proliferation, accumulation, and interactions of stressors over the life course as health risks, we examined whether (a) parent-child disconnection influences the occurrence of stressful life events in young adulthood, (b) parent-child disconnection potentiates the impact of stressful life events on young adults' health, or (c) potential health impact is intensified further by individual genotype. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 11,290 adolescents (Mean age 15.5 years, 53% female) over a period of 13 years, we found parent-child disconnection influenced young adults' stressful life events and amplified the impact of stressful life events on cardio-metabolic disease risk. We also found the association between stressful life events and cardio-metabolic disease risk was further intensified by the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Our findings demonstrate that stressful family relationships not only initiate stress processes over the early life course, but also sensitize youth to stressors, and that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism interacts with stressful life experiences to predict heightened disease risk.

Transcriptomic analyses and leukocyte telomere length measurement in subjects exposed to severe recent stressful life events

Stressful life events occurring in adulthood have been found able to affect mood and behavior, thus increasing the vulnerability for several stress-related psychiatric disorders. However, although there is plenty of clinical data supporting an association between stressful life events in adulthood and an enhanced vulnerability for psychopathology, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still poorly investigated. Thus, in this study we performed peripheral/whole-genome transcriptomic analyses in blood samples obtained from 53 adult subjects characterized for recent stressful life events occurred within the previous 6 months. Transcriptomic data were analyzed using Partek Genomics Suite; pathway and network analyses were performed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis and GeneMANIA Software. We found 207 genes significantly differentially expressed in adult subjects who reported recent stressful life experiences (n=21) compared with those without such experiences (n=32). Moreover, the same subjects exposed to such stressful experiences showed a reduction in leukocyte telomere length. A correlation analyses between telomere length and transcriptomic data indicated an association between the exposures to recent stressful life events and the modulation of several pathways, mainly involved in immune-inflammatory-related processes and oxidative stress, such as natural killer cell signaling, interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling, MIF regulation of innate immunity and IL-6 signaling. Our data suggest an association between exposures to recent stressful life events in adulthood and alterations in the immune, inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways, which could be also involved in the negative effect of stressful life events on leukocyte telomere length. The modulation of these mechanisms may underlie the clinical association between the exposure to recent Stressful life events in adulthood and an enhanced vulnerability to develop psychiatric diseases in adulthood.

The Outcome of Postnatal Exercise on Depressed Women Six to 16 Weeks after Delivery in Sukabumi City, 2014: Pre and Post Intervention Study

Evidence shows that psychic disturbances among women during pregnancy and postnatal period causes depression syndrome. Risk factor of postnatal depression includes depression and anxiety and stressful life experience during that risky period. Statistic from the city of Sukabumi indicated the unavailability of data on post natal depression among women. The study question is to evaluate the outcome of exercise among depressed post natal women in Sukabumi city in 2014, during six to sixteen weeks after delivery. The study design is pre-and post-outcome evaluation of post natal exercise intervention. Out of 120 target population obtained from the main Cross Sectional Survey, it was selected study sample of 14 depressed women. A regime of post natal exercise was given to the sample, consisted of postnatal exercises for 10 weeks @ 3 sessions per week or 30 sessions with 30-50 min exercise per session done in the morning before 10 O’clock and in the afternoon after 3 p.m. The outcome variable is EPDS score before and after intervention of post natal exercise. The cut-off point to determine possible depression is EPDS score of ≥10. Univariate analysis was conducted on socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. Bivariate analysis was done to test a null hypothesis that EPDS is the same pre-and post-exercise, assuming that no other variables confound the intervention. The paired t-test results indicated that the EPDS decreased significantly 7.6 points (p<0.05) after 10 weeks from 13.15 (10.66, 15.64) down to 5.55 (4.20, 6.90). After 10 weeks of postnatal exercise conducted, out of 14 subjects there was one subject who remained depressed, but the other 13 women were normal (p<0.05). Software used was SPSS v17 trial version. The study infers that postnatal exercise routinely and regularly may be promoted to be conducted by local health services.

How Accumulated Real Life Stress Experience and Cognitive Speed Interact on Decision-Making Processes.

Rationale: Advances in neurocomputational modeling suggest that valuation systems for goal-directed (deliberative) on one side, and habitual (automatic) decision-making on the other side may rely on distinct computational strategies for reinforcement learning, namely model-free vs. model-based learning. As a key theoretical difference, the model-based system strongly demands cognitive functions to plan actions prospectively based on an internal cognitive model of the environment, whereas valuation in the model-free system relies on rather simple learning rules from operant conditioning to retrospectively associate actions with their outcomes and is thus cognitively less demanding. Acute stress reactivity is known to impair model-based but not model-free choice behavior, with higher working memory capacity protecting the model-based system from acute stress. However, it is not clear which impact accumulated real life stress has on model-free and model-based decision systems and how this influence interacts with cognitive abilities.Methods: We used a sequential decision-making task distinguishing relative contributions of both learning strategies to choice behavior, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale questionnaire to assess accumulated real life stress, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to test cognitive speed in 95 healthy subjects.Results: Individuals reporting high stress exposure who had low cognitive speed showed reduced model-based but increased model-free behavioral control. In contrast, subjects exposed to accumulated real life stress with high cognitive speed displayed increased model-based performance but reduced model-free control.Conclusion: These findings suggest that accumulated real life stress exposure can enhance reliance on cognitive speed for model-based computations, which may ultimately protect the model-based system from the detrimental influences of accumulated real life stress. The combination of accumulated real life stress exposure and slower information processing capacities, however, might favor model-free strategies. Thus, the valence and preference of either system strongly depends on stressful experiences and individual cognitive capacities.

Early life stress experience may blunt hypothalamic leptin signalling.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether neonatal maternal separation (MS) - chronic stress experience in early life - affects the anorectic efficacy of leptin in the offspring at adolescence. Sprague-Dawley pups were separated from the dam daily for 3 h during postnatal day 1-14 or left undisturbed as non-handled controls (NH). NH and MS male pups received an intraperitoneal leptin (100 μg/kg) or saline on postnatal day (PND) 28, and then food intake and body weight gain were recorded. The hypothalamic levels of leptin-signalling-related genes, phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (pSTAT3) and protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) were examined at 40 min after a single injection of leptin on PND 39 by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. Leptin-induced suppressions in food intake and weight gain was observed in NH pups, but not in MS. Leptin increased pSTAT3 in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus of NH pups, but not of MS. Interestingly, basal levels of the hypothalamic PTP1B and pSTAT3 were increased in MS pups compared with NH controls. The results suggest that neonatal MS experience may blunt the anorectic efficacy of leptin later in life, possibly in relation with increased expressions of PTP1B and/or pSTAT3 in the hypothalamus.

Problem Solving Therapy in Young Adult:A Case Report

Humans face day to day challenges in our personal, academic and professional life. It is almost impossible to lead any sphere of our life which is problem free. So, it becomes utmost important to learn the skills to resolve our day to day issues effectively. Most of our day to day issues can be handled effectively if proper skills are used to solve them. It is important to remember, however, that some problems will be easy to resolve and some will require more efforts and need more time to solve. There are always multiple effective ways to handle problems. So, it is important that we continue to focus on different ways to find the solution. The core idea is that we all should become problem solvers and solution oriented rather than just pondering about the problem (s).When we arejust fixed at the problem only, we are feeding negativity to our brain and it will generate negative emotions which in turn further block our decision making skills and hinder the possibility of generating solutions. So, remain focused on solution finding is the key for handling the issue. It is also important to remember that most if not all all human day to day challenges can be solved to a significant extent if effective skills are used. There are some cardinal rules and steps that are important to remember while solving any issue (s).These are as follows.* Understanding the problem clearly* Being very specific about the problem at hand only* Thinking and writing down/discussing various possible solutions without discarding any one of them* Always try to write the possible barriers that might come in to solve the issue (s) and how that barrier can be effectively removed* Implementing the possible solutions being thought of one by one from most probable solution to least probable one* Check how much the stated problem is solved or how near you have come to finding the solution of the problemIt is important to remain flexible in the process of solving any problem. It is essential to have adaptive thinking skills for effective problem solving. We all the ability to think but skillful thinking is more quality thinking which facilitates solving day to day challenges. Thinking skills are tools that help us to go beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge in order to deepen their understanding and apply ideas, generate new possibilities and make decisions as well as to plan, monitor and evaluate their progress.Problem solving therapy (PST) is a brief and focused psychological intervention that has been used with a variety of client groups including people with depression, chronic illness, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Problem solving therapy involves patients learning new problem solving skills or reactivating previously learned ones. These skills can then be applied to specific life problems. It is important that the patients learn the skills to find the solution to their problems themselves so that they can continue to use the skills on their own. Problem-solving therapy is a cognitive behavioural intervention developed to improve an individual's ability to cope with stressful life experiences. The assumption of this approach is that symptoms of psychopathology can be understood as the result of ineffective or maladaptive coping. The goals of this therapy are to reduce or prevent psychopathology and improve the positive well-being through coping with their daily life problems it includes acceptance, tolerance, making something good come from problem, reducing physical tension. PST is based on two interrelated (conceptual models: 1 the social problem solving model & 2) the relational/problem solving model of stress and well-being.Problem-solving therapy aims to help individuals adopt a realistically optimistic view of coping, understand the role of emotions more effectively, and creatively develop an action plan and helps the individual to reduce distress and improves well-being. Problem solving therapy or interventions include psychoeducation, interactive problem-solving exercises, homework assignments. …

Event Centrality and Bereavement Symptomatology: The Moderating Role of Meaning Made.

The centrality of a loss to a bereaved individual's identity is associated with greater symptomatology, whereas meaning made of a loss is associated with positive outcomes. This article examines meaning made as a moderator of the relationship between event centrality and symptomatology. Our sample consisted of 204 bereaved undergraduate university students. Centrality was assessed using the Centrality of Events Scale, meaning made was assessed using the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale, and symptomatology was assessed using the posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist-Civilian and Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised. Meaning made had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between centrality and both measures of symptomatology. At lower levels of meaning made, centrality had a strong and positive association with symptomatology; at higher levels of meaning made, this association became weaker. These results suggest that meaning made is the key to understanding how centrality affects bereavement outcomes.