Psychosocial Reaction Research Articles

46 Depression and Reward Responsiveness in Multiple Sclerosis

Objective:Depression is common in persons with MS (PwMS), substantially contributing to morbidity and mortality. Depression can dually impact PwMS as both a psychosocial reaction to living with the disease and a neurological effect of it. Cardinal features of depression include reduced ability to seek and experience pleasure, often attributed to dysregulation of the brain's reward system. People with depression exhibit atypical reward processing, as do fatigued PwMS. However, it is unclear whether MS itself affects reward processing, and whether it interacts with depression. The current study explored the associations of depression, MS, and their interaction on reward responsiveness. We hypothesized that depression and MS would independently be associated with poorer reward responsiveness and that they would interact synergistically to impair reward responsiveness.Participants and Methods:Forty PwMS and 40 healthy age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC) participated in a computerized switching task with high- and low-reward manipulations. The Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory (CMDI) Mood subscale measured depressive symptoms. The Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Scales (BIS/BAS) measured self-reported reward responsiveness and behavioral inhibition. Switching task performance was measured as response time (RT) and accuracy. Performance differences between the high- and low-reward conditions represented performance-based reward responsiveness. Linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the associations of MS and depression with reward responsiveness, behavioral inhibition, and task performance.Results:Depression, but not MS, was associated with higher BIS scores (p=.007). Neither depression nor MS was associated with BAS subscales. On the switching task, participants who reported lower depression responded to reward such that they were slightly faster in the high-reward condition compared to the low-reward condition (p=.07). By contrast, in participants who reported higher depression, there was no effect of reward on response time. Additionally, MS (p=.009) and depression (p=.018) were each associated with slower response times. Regarding accuracy, no effects of reward were observed; however, there was an interaction between MS and depression. Among HC participants, depression was not related to accuracy. In comparison, PwMS who reported higher depression were more accurate than PwMS who reported less depression (p=.043).Conclusions:Consistent with hypotheses, higher depressive symptoms were associated with increased behavioral inhibition. Depression was not associated with self-reported reward responsiveness, but it was associated with reduced reward responsiveness on a cognitive task. Contrary to hypotheses, MS was not associated with reduced reward responsiveness. Additionally, higher depression and an MS diagnosis were related to slower response time, consistent with prior findings that psychomotor slowing is a hallmark feature of both disorders. Interestingly, we observed a unique behavioral trend in PwMS, such that PwMS with higher depressive symptoms were more accurate than PwMS with lower depressive symptoms, whereas this relationship was not present among HCs. Altogether, depression in both PwMS and cognitively healthy individuals may be associated with blunted reward responsiveness, but MS does not exacerbate this relationship. In fact, PwMS with depression may be more conscientious in their functioning and therefore perform better on cognitive task accuracy. Continued work should examine how reward processing and its underlying mechanisms may differ in depressed PwMS.

Psychosocial adaptation of families with children newly diagnosed with cancer in the Greek population amidst the socioeconomic crisis

Objective To present the initial assessment of psychosocial adaptation among Greek parents whose children were newly diagnosed with cancer amidst the turmoil of an ongoing financial crisis. Study design This prospective observational study used a quantitative approach. Participants Sixty-one parents of children with cancer treated at a large urban tertiary-care children’s hospital were prospectively recruited to participate in our study during the first week of their child’s diagnosis (2013–2016). Methods The parents were asked to complete the psychosocial assessment tool (PAT 2.0), Zung Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and World Health Organization Quality of Life–Bref Instrument; Moreover, three female healthcare providers (the physician oncologist, the head nurse and a senior nurse) completed the relevant PAT 2.0 -Staff Perceptions questionnaire the results of which were then compared to those of the child’s parent. Findings The majority of parents had PAT 2.0 scores indicative of increased psychosocial risk :54% were stratified into the “Targeted” (moderate risk) and 15% into the “Clinical” (highest risk) categories, whereas healthcare providers underestimated psychosocial risk in 57%−59% of the cases. The subscales that most contributed to the increased scores were Parental Stress Reaction, Family Structure and Resources, and Family Social Support. The PAT 2.0 had statistically significant correlations with most of the anxiety and depression scales, with Zung having the strongest correlation (r-value: +0.5, p-value <0.01). Our cohort presented more anxiety and depression compared to the general Greek population (14% for depression versus 2,9% for the general population and 46% for anxiety compared to 4,1%) in the years of financial recession in Greece. Conclusions The parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer in Greece are at increased risk for developing anxiety and depression in the years of financial recession in Greece compared to general population. Implications for psychosocial providers Parental stress reaction to diagnosis as well as lack of family resources and social support may contribute to this difference. Screening for psychosocial risk factors is essential for the early identification of these families and for the optimal utilization of the limited available resources in times of economic hardship.

Breaking Down the Barriers of Hereditary Cancer Risk Disclosure in AYA.

Breaking Down the Barriers of Hereditary Cancer Risk Disclosure in AYA.

Psychosocial Effects of Receiving Genome-Wide Polygenic Risk Information Concerning Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Receiving polygenic risk estimates of future disease through health care or direct-to-consumer companies is expected to become more common in the coming decades. However, only a limited number of studies have examined if such estimates might evoke an adverse psychosocial reaction in receivers. The present study utilized data from a sub-section of a personalized medicine project (the P5 study) that combines genomic and traditional health data to evaluate participants’ risk for certain common diseases. We investigated how communication of future disease risk estimates related to type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease influenced respondents’ risk perception, self-efficacy, disease-related worry, and other emotions. A randomized controlled trial was conducted, where the experimental group (n = 714) received risk estimates based on traditional and polygenic risk factors and the control group (n = 649) based solely on traditional risk factors. On average, higher disease risk was associated with higher perceived risk (ps, <0.001, ηp 2 = 0.087–0.071), worry (ps <0.001, ηp 2 = 0.061–0.028), lower self-efficacy (p <0 .001, ηp 2 = 0.012), less positive emotions (ps <0.04, ηp 2 = 0.042–0.005), and more negative emotions (ps <0.048, ηp 2 = 0.062–0.006). However, we found no evidence that adding the polygenic risk to complement the more traditional risk factors would induce any substantive psychosocial harm to the recipients (ps >0.06).

Psychosocial Reactions of COVID-19 in Pakistan: A Psychometric Study

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has created numerous psycho-social issues throughout the world. Aim: The current study is aimed at identifying and validating the psychosocial reactions of university students to current pandemic COVID-19. Methods: Mixed-methods research design was used. Initially, the presenting problems of 39 university studentswere collated and a list of 28 items was finalized and presented to 15 experienced clinical psychologists for the frequency of occurrence for Psychosocial Reaction Scale (PRS). An online survey was conducted on 510 university students with an age range of 17-26 (M=21.86; SD=2.94) and presented Psychosocial Reaction Scale (PRS) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) for construct validity. Results: Results of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a two-factor model depressive symptoms and apprehension. The PRS shown a satisfactory internal consistency and construct validity. Conclusion: The findings are further discussed in the continual significance and counseling plans to handle adverse reactions of COVID-19 in Pakistani university students.

FAMILY SUPPORT TO ADOLESCENTS WITH THALASSEMIA

Introduction: Thalassemia is one of the genetic disorders characterized by the decrease or absence of one of the globin chains, either alpha chain or beta chain. Which are the main components of normal hemoglobin. Thalassemia has become serious health issue in Mediterranean, Middle East, India, and South East Asia, including Indonesia. The thalassemia gene frequency in Indonesian population ranging from 3-8%. Adolescent is the transition period from children to adult. Thalassemia adolescents express psychosocial reaction and unpleasant experience due to the lifetime treatment routines that they must face off. These impact on the adolescents’ family and self-esteem. This study aims to analyze the relationship between family support and self-esteem of thalassemia adolescents.&#x0D; Method: This was a quantitative study design with phenomenology approach. A total of 50 subjects were collected with purposive sampling technique. Data were obtained by from questionnaire and analyzed using Spearman Rho method with cross sectional approach.&#x0D; Results: The statistical result with Spearman Rho method shows significant p value of 0.024 (p &lt;0.05) and r value of 0.319. The positive correlation implies that both variables are moving in same direction with weak relationship. These results are in accordance with the hypothesis that family support are related with self-esteem of thalassemia adolescents.&#x0D; Conclusion: Family support in thalassemia adolescents is high and no thalassemia adolescents present with low self-esteem, mostly normal. The correlation between these two variables is weak but significant.

The Psychosocial Reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic among Individuals in the Arab World

This current study aimed at investigating the psycho social reaction to covid19 among individual in the Arab world. In addition, to discover the relationship between these reactions with various variables like age, gender, educational level, occupation and place of origin and place of residence. An open-end questions set by the researchers distributed via the internet. Five hundred and twenty eight (528) respondents answer the questions, 398 females and 130 males. The result showed that the majority of the respondent never or rarely feel negative psychosocial reactions in the entire question except feeling anxious and Suspicions of any person sneeze and this sound logic because the majority of the respondents have no experience of covid19. Thus, they are not under the pressure of suffering from this dangerous and threating disease. The majority of participants from Saudi and Sudan, and other United Emirate country, simply because the researchers from these two countries. Covid19 major concern are physical aspect of the disease, no one can doubt the importance of the psychosocial issues, which are the concern of this study. Other aspect the religious background of the Arabic country especially Sudan and Saudi are conservative and culture restricted communities, thus their psychosocial reaction colored with these background. This study cannot be generalized to the completely Arabic world but it can give an indicator on how individual in the Arabic world think, feel, and react. The study end with conclusion and some recommendations.

Families' experiences of grief and bereavement in the emergency department: A scoping review.

Death is a frequent event in the emergency department, and many family members experience grief and bereavement. However, little is known about what families experience. The aim of this study was to explore previous findings about families' experiences of grief and bereavement in the emergency department to clarify and understand their experience. A scoping review was chosen as the design for this research. Studies were searched from four electronic databases. The obtained studies were screened independently by two reviewers and selected by mutual agreement of the entire team based upon the eligibility criteria. All relevant data were extracted, and thematic analysis was conducted to assess families' grief and bereavement experiences in the emergency department. The database searches initially resulted in 982 studies; these were finally narrowed to 20 studies for data extraction. Publication years ranged from 1987 to 2020. The studies were conducted across nine countries; most were from the United States and had a qualitative research design. Analysis elicited the following themes: "lack of information," "breaking bad news," "being present during resuscitation," "chaotic environment," "psychosocial reaction in bereavement," and "support and care needs from healthcare professionals." These themes reveal challenges in providing support and care from emergency nurses to bereaved families, including inadequate provision of information, poor design of the emergency department due to the lack of privacy, and families' unmet support and care needs. Emergency nurses need to better understand families' experience of grief and bereavement.

A pilot study assessing the burden of caregivers of elderly patients at University College Hospital UCH.

12 Background: Caregiver burden is defined as “the perception of stress and fatigue caused by the sustained effort required in caring for persons with chronic illness or other conditions with special needs for care”. It is a type of stress or strain experienced by caregivers, which is directly/ indirectly related to the challenges/problems they face as a result of the health status of the person cared for. Stucki et al. 2000, described the carers burden as “strain or load borne by a person who cares for a chronically ill, disabled, or elderly family member”. Caregiver burden is response to physical, psychological, emotional, social, and financial stressors associated with the caregiving in a multidimensional way. It is the psychosocial and physical reaction to the imbalance of demands placed on the caregiver by various factors, including personal time, multiple roles, physical and emotional states, financial resources, and formal care resources. The caregiver's perception of the burden, rather than the perception of other family members or healthcare providers, determines the impact of this burden on his or her life. Methods: Caregivers of elderly patients attending the geriatric and medical outpatient’s clinics at UCH completed a caregiver strain index scale, over a 2 month period. Demographic information regarding gender, age, were obtained and scaled questions were ticked. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS statistics 21. Results: Eighty-five participants completed the caregiver strain index scale. The socio-demographic data described age and gender. Most participants fell in the 31 - 40 and 41 - 50 age groups (41.2% for each group). Fifty-eight (68.2%) were females while 27 (31.8%) were males. Most common strain variable was demand on time with percentage 54.1% (46). Twenty-nine (34.1%) had moderate level of stress (4 - 6) , while 32 (37.6%) had mild level of stress, and 17 (20.0%) had high level of stress. One participant had the highest score index was 11 while 13 (15.3%) had scores of 3 and 13 (15.3%) had scores of 5. Conclusions: The study showed that caregivers of elderly patients have high burden in the demand on their time and need supportive/collaborative systems which includes palliative care to help with the task of caring for these elderly ones.

Effect of corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor1 gene variation on psychosocial stress reaction via the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in healthy adults

ObjectiveIt has been proposed that the common intronic CRHR1 SNP rs110402 is associated with anxiety and cortisol response patterns and plays a key role in vulnerability to certain mental disorders. The current study explored the effect of rs110402 genotype on psychological stress processing in healthy adults. MethodsThe Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) was administered to 140 healthy adults (34 C carriers and 106 TT homozygotes) during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Between-group differences in self-reported stress level, whole brain activation, and cortisol levels were assessed. ResultsThe rs110402 genotype groups differed in stress-induced cortisol response and bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity. The TT homozygotes showed greater stress-induced activation in the bilateral dACC compared to C carriers. Interestingly, dACC activity during MIST was negatively correlated with cortisol response in healthy adults. State anxiety, trait anxiety, and mental resilience did not differ between genotypes. ConclusionsCRHR1 SNP rs110402 genotype plays a role in psychosocial neural processing and cortisol response in healthy adults. The activity in dACC may mediate effect of rs110402 on psychosocial stress processing in the healthy population. Moreover, level of dACC activation may be associated with stress vulnerability.

The relationship between psychosocial behavior reaction,psychosocial needs,anxiety and depression among colostomy patients prior to discharge

Objective To study the psychosocial behavior reaction, psychosocial needs, anxiety and depression among colostomy patients prior to discharge and to explore the relationship between them. Methods Totally 67 colostomy patients from 2 hospitals in Guangzhou were recruited and investigated by demographic questionnaire, Ostomy Psychosocial Behavior Reaction Questionnaire, Ostomy Psychosocial Needs Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale 1-2 days prior to discharge. Results The psychosocial behavior reaction among colostomy patients was in the moderate level with the mean score 2.15±0.27. The psychosocial needs were in medium to high level with the mean score 2.09±0.41. About 37.3% of colostomy patients showed anxiety, while 20.9% patients showed depression. Significant positive correlation was shown between psychosocial behavior reaction and psychosocial needs(r=0.565, P<0.01), while significant positive correlation was also shown between psychosocial behavior reaction and anxiety-depression(r=-0.472, -0.319, P<0.01). Psychosocial needs and anxiety could predict psychosocial behavior reaction positively(β=0.486, -0.375, P<0.01). Conclusion The positive acknowledgement and reconstruction are the main psychosocial behavior reactions prior to discharge in colostomy patients. Patients with more psychosocial needs, severe anxiety show more psychosocial behavior reaction. Key words: Colostomy; Psychosocial behavior reaction; Psychosocial needs; Anxiety; Depression

Psychosocial reaction patterns to alopecia in female patients with gynecological cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

This study aims to clarify the psychosocial reactions of female patients with gynecological cancer undergoing chemotherapy and in the process of suffering from alopecia and to examine their nursing support. The target group comprised female patients who had received two or more cycles of chemotherapy, were suffering from alopecia, and were aged 30-65. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, conducted from the time the patients were informed by their doctors that they might experience alopecia due to chemotherapy to the time they actually experienced alopecia and until they were able to accept the change. Inductive qualitative analysis was employed to close in on the subjective experiences of the cancer patients. The results showed the existence of six phases in the psychosocial reactions in the process of alopecia: phase one was the reaction after the doctor's explanation; phase two was the reaction when the hair starts to fall out; phase three was the reaction when the hair starts to intensely fall out; phase four was the reaction when the hair has completely fallen out; phase five was the reaction to behavior for coping with alopecia; and phase six was the reaction to change in interpersonal human relationships. The results also made it clear that there are five types of reaction patterns as follows: 1) treatment priority interpersonal relationship maintenance type; 2) alopecia agitated interpersonal relationship maintenance type; 3) alopecia agitated interpersonal relationship reduction type; 4) alopecia denial interpersonal relationship reduction type; and 5) alopecia denial treatment interruption type. It is important to find out which of the five types the patients belong to early during treatment and provide support so that nursing intervention that suits each individual can be practiced. The purpose of this study is to make clear the process in which patients receiving chemotherapy come to accept alopecia and to examine evidence-based nursing care on patients with strong mental distress from alopecia.

How dieting makes the lean fatter: from a perspective of body composition autoregulation through adipostats and proteinstats awaiting discovery.

Whether dieting makes people fatter has been a subject of considerable controversy over the past 30 years. More recent analysis of several prospective studies suggest, however, that it is dieting to lose weight in people who are in the healthy normal range of body weight, rather than in those who are overweight or obese, that most strongly and consistently predict future weight gain. This paper analyses the ongoing arguments in the debate about whether repeated dieting to lose weight in normal-weight people represents unsuccessful attempts to counter genetic and familial predispositions to obesity, a psychosocial reaction to the fear of fatness or that dieting per se confers risks for fatness and hence a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic. In addressing the biological plausibility that dieting predisposes the lean (rather than the overweight or obese) to regaining more body fat than what had been lost (i.e. fat overshooting), it integrates the results derived from the re-analysis of body composition data on fat mass and fat-free mass (FFM) losses and recoveries from human studies of experimental energy restriction and refeeding. These suggest that feedback signals from the depletion of both fat mass (i.e. adipostats) and FFM (i.e. proteinstats) contribute to weight regain through the modulation of energy intake and adaptive thermogenesis, and that a faster rate of fat recovery relative to FFM recovery (i.e. preferential catch-up fat) is a central outcome of body composition autoregulation in lean individuals. Such a temporal desynchronization in the restoration of the body's fat vs. FFM results in a state of hyperphagia that persists beyond complete recovery of fat mass and interestingly until FFM is fully recovered. However, as this completion of FFM recovery is also accompanied by fat deposition, excess fat accumulates. In other words, fat overshooting is a prerequisite to allow complete recovery of FFM. This confers biological plausibility for post-dieting fat overshooting - which through repeated dieting and weight cycling would increase the risks for trajectories from leanness to fatness. Given the increasing prevalence of dieting in normal-weight female and male among young adults, adolescents and even children who perceive themselves as too fat (due to media, family and societal pressures), together with the high prevalence of dieting for optimizing performance among athletes in weight-sensitive sports, the notion that dieting and weight cycling may be predisposing a substantial proportion of the population to weight gain and obesity deserves greater scientific scrutiny.

Psychosocial experiences in the context of life-threatening illness: the cardiac rehabilitation patient.

One of the most prevalent life-threatening illnesses is heart disease. The initial trauma of being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or having a cardiac event can begin a psychosocial chain reaction that results in a transformation of the lives of these patients. The goal of our study was to investigate the lived experiences of psychosocial healing in rehabilitation of cardiac patients using a qualitative written interview. A purposive sample of 14 cardiac event survivors was recruited. Participants were interviewed after informed consent and screening. We used a qualitative analysis and model-revision approach similar to the procedure outlined by Charmaz (2006). Participants consistently mentioned that a heightened awareness of mortality was a motivating factor that led to participants focusing more on their family and relationships, having an enhanced outlook on life, and making healthy lifestyle changes. If clinicians are able to employ a measure to better understand the nature of a patient's progression from cardiac event to successful recovery, interventions such as cardiac rehabilitation can be implemented earlier and more effectively during the course of the illness and recovery phases of treatment. Theoretically, this early detection of a patient's progression could reduce the time spent recovering from a cardiac event, and it would allow treatments for these conditions to better alleviate the psychosocial concerns faced by patients.

Investigation of the psychosocial reaction of HPV infected women

Objective To study the psychosocial impact and the level of anxiety of the HPV infected women so as to provide reference evidence for designing psychosocial interventions program .Methods Self-made questionnaire and self-rating anxiety scale （ SAS） were used to investigate the psychosocial impact and the level of anxiety of 287 HPV infected women .Results The common psychosocial impact was stigma , fear and self-blame.The SAS scores of one type HPV infected group and multi type HPV infected group were （53.17 ± 13.73） and （55.42 ±10.64） scores,respectively, there was no significant difference between the two groups （t=0.653,P＆gt;0.05）.The SAS scores of high-risk subtype HPV infected group and low-risk subtype HPV infected group were （68.14 ±16.73） and （40.25 ±9.07） scores, respectively,and the SAS scores of high-risk subtype HPV infected group was higher than that of low-risk subtype HPV infected group （ t =2.625, P ＆lt;0.01）.Conclusions Common psychosocial impact of HPV infected women was stigma , fear and self-blame. The SAS score of high-risk subtype HPV infected group was higher than that of low-risk subtype . Key words: Human papillomavirus; Gene; Cervical cancer; Psychosocial impacts

Psychosocial reaction of diagnosing tuberculosis - An experience of tertiary care center of rural Gujarat

Background: In India Tuberculosis (TB) is the major public health problem. It is still been considered as social stigma by many people especially in rural areas. It is necessary to pay more attention towards psychosocial needs of the patients so that they accept the anti TB treatment easily without any fear. This will result in good adherence to treatment and better cure rate can be achieved. Aims & Objectives: The main aim of study is to assess the psychosocial problems & issues related to social stigma for tuberculosis and its treatment in rural population. Materials and Methods: A prospective cross sectional study was conducted at rural tertiary care center at Dist. Bhavnagar, Gujarat. A structured interview was taken with prior consent and data was collected for the patient newly diagnosed as Tuberculosis. Results: A significant proportion of patients were found to have adverse psychosocial reaction on informing that they are suffering from TB (p

Psychosocial Reaction and Trauma After a Natural Disaster: The Role of Coping Behavior

This study examined the relationship between psychosocial reaction, coping behavior and trauma among natural disaster survivors in West Java, Indonesia. One hundred and one subjects were studied. The roles of coping behavior as a moderating factor were also tested. Psychosocial reaction during disaster and coping behavior were significantly correlated with trauma. Hierarchical regression analysis found that coping behavior was a significant potential moderating variable in terms of correlation between psychosocial reaction and trauma after a natural disaster.

Effect of psychosocial stress on FKBP5 and NR3C1 gene expression in healthy young men

Stress diseases such as affective disorders are often characterized by a disturbed regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. This dysregulation can be explained by an impaired function of the receptors involved in the HPA-axis regulation, for example, the glucocorticoid receptors (GR). The regulation process of the HPA axis and the GR function are influenced by several genes, for instance by NR3C1 coding for the GR and also by FKBP5, a co-chaperone in the GR-complex. Binder et al. showed that common polymorphisms in FKBP5 are associated with increased FKBP5 protein expression as well as correlation between cortisol levels and peripheral blood FKBP5 mRNA expression . Regarding the effects of FKPB5 genotypes on psychosocial stress reaction, Ising and colleagues tested healthy subjects with the Trier Social Stress Test, a standardized paradigm to induce psychosocial stress . Subjects homozygous for any of the FKBP5 variants showed an incomplete normalization of the stress induced cortisol secretion.Recent studies demonstrated that FKBP5 and NR3C1 are involved in the endocrine stress reaction. Therefore, we expected changes of FKBP5 and NR3C1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood after exposure to a psychosocial stress situation. To address this, we performed a pilot study where we tested six healthy young men without history of psychiatric or severe somatic disorders and applied the trier social stress test (TSST). Before and after two consecutive TSSTs, we took blood samples with a venous catheter in order to measure ACTH and cortisol in plasma and mRNA expression of the candidate genes in peripheral blood. Blood cells were stabilized using PAXgene tubes, and gene expression was processed by qPCR.Briefly after the psychosocial stress the stress hormones ACTH and cortisol increased whereas the reaction to the second TSST was lower suggesting a habituation effect. These endocrine stress responses were followed by an alteration in FKBP5 gene expression, further underlining the importance of this gene for the neuroendocrine stress reaction. NR3C1 mRNA levels did not change after the TSST.Our preliminary data indicate an effect of psychosocial stress on the FKBP5 mRNA levels. Further research with larger samples sizes is required to replicate and extend these results.

Research on Speed Limit of Two-Lane Highway of Mountain Area

The paper investigates the effects of the road geometry parameters and the driver psychosocial reaction behaviors on driving safety of vehicles on the two-lane highway of mountain area. Firstly, the equivalent accident rate, P, is put forward as driving safety indicator, and the parameter sensitive analysis are performed between P and road geometry parameters including curve radius, slope and length, then the estimation model and evaluation criterion of P is established. Secondly, the psychosocial reaction behavior index, N, is provided as ride comfort indicator, and the evaluation model of N is established by relating N with road geometry parameters and driving speed. Finally, the two kinds of limiting condition including highest safety of the general bending, slope sections and lowest safety of the sharp curve, steep sections are present and the corresponding the driving speed is calculated. The analysis show that when V=35km/h in the most secure particular curved, the optimum driving safety and comfort can be achieved. As well, the maximum speed will be 10km/h in the lowest ones.

The burden of brain tumor: a single-institution study on psychological patterns in caregivers

Quality of life and well-being in caregivers are usually partly neglected since all attention is focused on patients and the way they react to the illness. Carers also usually neglect their own needs, especially when the illness of the patient is as complex as a brain tumor. The aim of this study is to investigate how caregivers deal with a diagnosis of brain tumor in their relatives and how they manage their quality of life and psychosocial well-being. One hundred primary caregivers of patients with brain tumors were interviewed and were asked to fill in self-administered questionnaires detecting multidimensional levels of quality of life, anxiety, depression, and psychosocial reaction to the patient's illness. Data were related with some functional and psychosocial information collected about the patient's disease. Caregivers try to react to the illness of their relatives by mobilizing their physical reaction and growing their self-esteem, but they live with a clinically significant impairment of their quality of life, and experience a deep level of anxiety and depression. The caregivers' burden appears mainly in their ability to provide care and in financial strain. The length of disease and the functional status of patients significantly influence caregivers' psychosocial well-being. Despite the appearance they want to show their affected relatives, caregivers suffer from deep limitation in their quality of life. The relevance of caregivers' burden suggests the importance of psychological support to improve reaction to the illness.