Vantage Perspective Research Articles

Cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories: Recall vantage perspective and associations with depression

Although recent research demonstrates that intrusive memories represent an overlapping cognitive feature of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is still a general paucity of research investigating the prevalence and maintenance of intrusive memories in depression. The current study investigated the association between a range of cognitive avoidant mechanisms that characterize PTSD samples (i.e., suppression, rumination, emotional detachment, and an observer vantage perspective) and intrusive memories of negative autobiographical events in relation to dysphoria. Hypotheses were based on the proposition that employment of these cognitive mechanisms would hinder the emotional processing of the negative event, thus contributing to the maintenance of intrusions. Results supported an association between negative intrusive memories, dysphoria, and avoidant mechanisms. Significant differences were also found between field and observer memories and measures of emotional detachment and rumination. Implications relating to intrusive memory maintenance and treatment approaches are discussed.

Framing Treatment Options

Advanced practice nurses are challenged with counseling and providing information to clients about treatment options during the informed consent process. In the clinical area of oncology, clients are faced with choosing treatment options that are undesirable or affect quality and quantity of life directly. Framing as a nursing intervention to assist advanced practice nurses during the informed consent process is explored in this article. Framing provides a method to present information from different vantage points and perspectives with a focus on the client's values and perceptions of quality of life. Parse's man-living-health theory is used to guide nursing practice. Quality of life is addressed with an assessment tool by Ferrans. The use of framing to present treatment options from the client's perspective of health and quality of life, as well as from the biomedical and nursing perspectives, can result in a consent that is truly informed.