Predictors Of Posttraumatic Symptoms Research Articles

Mental Time Travel in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Current Gaps and Future Directions.

Mental Time Travel in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Current Gaps and Future Directions.

Non-adaptive reaction to disease - coping, demographic variables and trauma symptoms in cancer patients.

The aim of the presented study was to determine the relations of styles and strategies of coping with stress and demographic variables with the intensity of PTSD symptoms in persons diagnosed with cancer. The study tried to determine which style of coping with stress is the best predictor of posttraumatic symptoms in the group. This study was conducted on the group of 150 patients (55 females and 95 males) that were treated for cancer. Polish version of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale - mini-MAC - was used to study styles of coping with stress. PTSD Inventory (PTSD-C) allowing for the quantitative estimation of the symptoms was used measure the intensity of PTSD symptoms. Additionally, a demographic questionnaire containing the questions about the age, sex, education, and the time since the diagnosis was employed for the benefits of this study. The results of the study indicate non-adaptive function of destructive style. In the situation of being subjected to a traumatic event this style is propitious to the development of the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The individual strategies of coping, sex and age are correlated with higher intensity of posttraumatic symptoms in sick persons. Destructive style, of coping with stress is less beneficial for the adaptation to a cancerous disease. It may significantly influence the development of pathological symptoms characteristic to PTSD.

Cognitive predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months following acute coronary syndrome

This study examined patients’ illness representations assessed shortly after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months later. Illness representations were assessed in ACS patients using standard measures at a home visit three weeks after discharge from hospital. Posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed at the same time, and again six months later. Patients were aged 61 years on average, the majority being men (89.8%) of white European decent (89%). Greater posttraumatic symptoms at six months were associated with beliefs that the illness would last a long time (timeline), that it had an unpredictable time course (timeline – cyclical), greater consequences, less personal and treatment control, poorer illness coherence and stronger negative emotional representations (emotional upset relating to the illness; p < 0.05). In multiple regression analyses, controlling for demographic, clinical and psychological factors (age, gender, ethnicity, social deprivation, ACS severity, negative affectivity and cardiac symptom recurrence), more intense emotional representations (β = 0.146, p = 0.041) and reduced illness coherence (β = −0.133, p = 0.029), emerged as independent predictors of posttraumatic symptom severity at six months. There was a near significant effect for personal control (β = −0.113, p = 0.058). These results demonstrate the importance of illness representations of ACS in predicting longer-term posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Investigating the “rescue personality”.

Mitchell and Bray use the term rescue personality as a way of describing characteristics of individuals who serve in the emergency services and describe emergency service workers as inner-directed, action oriented, obsessed with high standards of performance, traditional, socially conservative, easily bored, and highly dedicated.This rescue personality has provided an important foundation for the controversial Critical Incident Stress Management model; however, little empirical evidence is available demonstrating its existence.Previous literature has primarily considered emergency service personality characteristics as predictors of posttraumatic symptoms and/or effective job performance. Consequently, a gap in the literature exists with respect to research investigating the existence of a particular personality type for emergency service workers, as compared with those working in nonemergency occupations. The present project compared a group of paid professional firefighters (n = 94) with a comparison gr...