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Vaccine Dec 2021In the race to deploy vaccines to prevent COVID-19, there is a need to understand factors influencing vaccine hesitancy. Secondary risk theory is a useful framework to...
INTRODUCTION
In the race to deploy vaccines to prevent COVID-19, there is a need to understand factors influencing vaccine hesitancy. Secondary risk theory is a useful framework to explain this, accounting for concerns about vaccine efficacy and safety.
METHODS
During the first week of July, 2020, participants (N = 216) evaluated one of three different hypothetical vaccine scenarios describing an FDA-approved vaccine becoming available "next week," "in one year," or "in two years." Dependent variables were perceived vaccine efficacy, self-efficacy, perceived vaccine risk, and vaccination willingness. Covariates included vaccine conspiracy beliefs, science pessimism, media dependency, and perceived COVID-19 risk. Data analysis employed multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).
RESULTS
Perceived vaccine efficacy was lowest for the next-week vaccine (η = .045). Self-efficacy was higher for the two-year vaccine than the next-week vaccine (η = .029). Perceived vaccine risk was higher for the next-week vaccine than for the one-year vaccine (η = .032). Vaccination willingness did not differ among experimental treatments. In addition, vaccine conspiracy beliefs were negatively related to perceived vaccine efficacy (η = .142), self-efficacy (η = .031), and vaccination willingness (η = .143) and positively related to perceived vaccine risk (η = .216).
CONCLUSIONS
The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine may have heightened public concerns over efficacy, availability, and safety. However, the current findings showed a general willingness to take even the most rapidly developed vaccine. Nonetheless, there remains a need to communicate publicly and transparently about vaccine efficacy and safety and work to reduce vaccine conspiracy beliefs.
Topics: COVID-19; COVID-19 Vaccines; Humans; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination Hesitancy; Vaccine Development; Vaccine Efficacy
PubMed: 34802786
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.014 -
International Journal of Environmental... Dec 2022This work studies the emotional and behavioural difficulties and the personal wellbeing of adolescents under protective measures. The sample is made up of 151...
This work studies the emotional and behavioural difficulties and the personal wellbeing of adolescents under protective measures. The sample is made up of 151 adolescents in residential care between 11 and 17 years of age. The instruments used were the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI). The results indicate that a high percentage of adolescents have emotional and behavioural difficulties. We found a greater presence of behavioural rather than emotional problems in the adolescents. Similarly, we also found that females showed more emotional difficulties than the males. As for personal wellbeing, the results indicate that the adolescents are dissatisfied in several areas of their life, they feel insecure and have a pessimistic view of their future and of their achievements. Furthermore, those adolescents who were admitted to residential care due to something other than child abuse have a greater prosocial behaviour. It can be concluded that the more difficulties the adolescents experience (emotional, behavioural and with their peers), the lower the perception of their personal wellbeing will be. This study allows us to design interventions aimed at promoting psychological wellbeing among these adolescents.
Topics: Male; Child; Female; Humans; Adolescent; Surveys and Questionnaires; Emotions; Personal Satisfaction; Peer Group; Pessimism
PubMed: 36612578
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20010256 -
Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical... Apr 2023This special section on theories of psychopathology provides an opportunity to collect the emergent, cross-cutting scholarship that is challenging traditional approaches...
This special section on theories of psychopathology provides an opportunity to collect the emergent, cross-cutting scholarship that is challenging traditional approaches to understanding mental illness. Here, we appraise the state of theory in the field and emphasize the pitfalls of working in the context of overly flexible, unchallenged, and essentially unchallengeable theoretic models, such as the biopsychosocial model, which we argue has become the de facto theoretic model for our field. We further posit that theoretic shortcomings are contributing to the often-referenced pessimism regarding our progress in understanding and treating mental illness, and introduce the charge of the authors of the papers in this section to articulate novel, falsifiable theories of psychopathology. We briefly touch on the intertwined issue of how to define psychopathology and discuss a key issue raised by the array of papers comprising the section, namely how to conceptualize the spatiotemporal boundaries of complex causal systems. We then use this schematic for understanding how these theories relate to each other and to the vanilla biopsychosocial model they are vying to replace. Ultimately, it is our belief and hope that progress in theoretic thinking will catalyze faster progress in research and improvements to and novel developments in clinical prevention and intervention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Mental Disorders; Psychopathology; Models, Theoretical; Models, Biopsychosocial; Personality Inventory
PubMed: 37126055
DOI: 10.1037/abn0000824 -
Brain and Behavior Aug 2022Personality differences have been demonstrated to influence an individual's academic performance in different ways. Notably, conscientiousness is the most consistent...
INTRODUCTION
Personality differences have been demonstrated to influence an individual's academic performance in different ways. Notably, conscientiousness is the most consistent significant predictor of academic performance, while neuroticism shows inconsistent results.
OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to determine the relationship between the facets of conscientiousness and neuroticism on academic motivation.
METHOD
The study was conducted in Australia and consisted of 285 undergraduate students. The International Personality Item Pool and Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire were used to measure personality and motivation, respectively. Structural equation modeling results revealed that conscientiousness had the most significant relationship with academic motivation, while neuroticism was negatively related. The conscientious facets of self-efficacy and achievement striving were positively related to academic motivation. The results also revealed that the anxiety facet of neuroticism was the only significant positive predictor for academic motivation, while depression and vulnerability were negatively related.
CONCLUSION
This study reveals how personality facets contribute to academic motivation over assessing grades and superordinate factors alone. Trait-level anxiety significantly contributes to academic motivation, helping us shed light on underlying mechanisms such as defensive pessimism, resulting in higher motivation due to fearing the worst.
Topics: Humans; Motivation; Neuroticism; Personality; Personality Inventory; Students
PubMed: 35836402
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2673 -
Injury Aug 2022The incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is increasingly common in older adults aged ≥65 years, forming a growing public health problem. However, older adults are...
INTRODUCTION
The incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is increasingly common in older adults aged ≥65 years, forming a growing public health problem. However, older adults are underrepresented in TBI research. Therefore, we aimed to provide an overview of health-care utilization, and of six-month outcomes after TBI and their determinants in older adults who sustained a TBI.
METHODS
We used data from the prospective multi-center Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI) study. In-hospital and post-hospital health care utilization and outcomes were described for patients aged ≥65 years. Ordinal and linear regression analyses were performed to identify determinants of the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and mental health symptoms six-months post-injury.
RESULTS
Of 1254 older patients, 45% were admitted to an ICU with a mean length of stay of 9 days. Nearly 30% of the patients received inpatient rehabilitation. In total, 554/1254 older patients completed the six-month follow-up questionnaires. The mortality rate was 9% after mild and 60% after moderate/severe TBI, and full recovery based on GOSE was reported for 44% of patients after mild and 6% after moderate/severe TBI. Higher age and increased injury severity were primarily associated with functional impairment, while pre-injury systemic disease, psychiatric conditions and lower educational level were associated with functional impairment, lower generic and disease-specific HRQoL and mental health symptoms.
CONCLUSION
The rate of impairment and disability following TBI in older adults is substantial, and poorer outcomes across domains are associated with worse preinjury health. Nonetheless, a considerable number of patients fully or partially returns to their preinjury functioning. There should not be pessimism about outcomes in older adults who survive.
Topics: Aged; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; Glasgow Outcome Scale; Humans; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life
PubMed: 35725508
DOI: 10.1016/j.injury.2022.05.009 -
The American Psychologist Oct 2021In light of the analyses of Scheier et al. (2021) concerning differential associations of optimism and pessimism measures with physical health, we argue here that...
In light of the analyses of Scheier et al. (2021) concerning differential associations of optimism and pessimism measures with physical health, we argue here that whether optimism and pessimism are bipolar, lying on separate ends of a spectrum, or whether they represent two separate dimensions is a conceptual, rather than an empirical, question. Differential associations of various indicators, or indicator sets, with health may indeed be of interest, but there are also different ways of grouping indicators other than whether items are worded to correspond to optimism or pessimism. We do nevertheless believe that the analyses of Scheier et al. (2021) can be useful in helping guide intervention development in precisely the ways they suggest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Optimism; Pessimism
PubMed: 34990174
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000864 -
Frontiers in Pediatrics 2021Pulmonary Vein Stenosis (PVS) is a rare disease with a prevalence of around 1. 7 cases per 100,000 children under 2 years old. Treatment options for this disease have... (Review)
Review
Pulmonary Vein Stenosis (PVS) is a rare disease with a prevalence of around 1. 7 cases per 100,000 children under 2 years old. Treatment options for this disease have not provided great results and pathophysiology of this condition is still poorly understood. Here, we will review the history of PVS including diagnostic tools and treatments, the current management approach, and what the future holds for this devastating disease.
PubMed: 34676188
DOI: 10.3389/fped.2021.747812 -
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2023Depression is a psychiatric disorder characterized by anxiety, pessimism, and suicidal tendencies, which has serious impact on human's life. In this paper, we use...
Depression is a psychiatric disorder characterized by anxiety, pessimism, and suicidal tendencies, which has serious impact on human's life. In this paper, we use Granger causality index based on polynomial kernel as network node connectivity coefficient to construct brain networks from the magnetoencephalogram (MEG) of 5 depressed patients and 11 healthy individuals under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli, respectively. We found that depressed patients had more information exchange between the frontal and occipital regions compared to healthy individuals and less causal connections in the parietal and central regions. We further analyzed the topological properties of the network revealed and found that depressed patients had higher average degrees under negative stimuli ( = 0.008) and lower average clustering coefficients than healthy individuals ( = 0.034). When comparing the average degree and average clustering coefficient of the same sample under different emotional stimuli, we found that depressed patients had a higher average degree and average clustering coefficient under negative stimuli than neutral and positive stimuli. We also found that the characteristic path lengths of patients under negative and neutral stimuli significantly deviated from small-world network. Our results suggest that the analysis of polynomial kernel Granger causality brain networks can effectively characterize the pathology of depression.
PubMed: 37761629
DOI: 10.3390/e25091330 -
Depression and Anxiety May 2021Rumination and worry are repetitive negative thinking (RNT) tendencies that contribute to the development and maintenance of internalizing psychopathologies. Accruing...
BACKGROUND
Rumination and worry are repetitive negative thinking (RNT) tendencies that contribute to the development and maintenance of internalizing psychopathologies. Accruing data suggest rumination and worry represent overlapping and unique transdiagnostic cognitive processes. Yet, prior neuroimaging research has mostly focused on rumination in depression, which points to involvement of resting-state brain activity in default mode, executive, salience, and/or affective networks.
METHODS
The current study examined relations between brain activity during rest and RNT in a transdiagnostic sample. Resting-state fMRI data was analyzed in 80 unmedicated patients with internalizing conditions. Regression analysis, controlling for anxiety and depression symptoms, was performed with seed regions implicated in default mode, executive, salience, and affective networks. Rumination and worry were assessed with standard self-report measures.
RESULTS
Whole-brain regression results showed more rumination and worry jointly corresponded with greater positive resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the amygdala and prefrontal regions (i.e., middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus). Conversely, more worry (controlling for rumination) corresponded with greater negative rsFC between amygdala and precuneus. No significant results were observed for rumination alone (controlling for worry).
CONCLUSIONS
Findings indicate the affective network plays a role in RNT, and distinct patterns of connectivity between amygdala and regions implicated in the executive and default mode networks were observed across patients with internalizing conditions. Results suggest different mechanisms contribute to RNT as a unitary construct and worry as a unique construct.
Topics: Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Brain; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Pessimism; Rest
PubMed: 33621397
DOI: 10.1002/da.23142 -
The World Allergy Organization Journal Aug 2021Given that the COVID-19 era has changed the behavior of all individuals, and since previous reports about its possible impact on atopic dermatitis (AD) patients remained...
Given that the COVID-19 era has changed the behavior of all individuals, and since previous reports about its possible impact on atopic dermatitis (AD) patients remained speculative, in this survey we aimed to explore the real impact of COVID-19 among AD patients. All participants provided verbal consent prior to completing the survey. A 37-question web-based survey with no personal identifiers was sent to 212 previously identified AD patients. Itching, sleep disturbances, SARS-CoV-2, illness cost, economic dependence, monthly income, and monthly investment in AD before and during the pandemic, were all included in the analysis. A response rate of 73.1% was obtained. The mean age of participants was 30 years-old, and 57% were women. Around 75% reported AD worsening, and 59.4% of the patients reported sleep problems. Uncertainty, anxiety, and pessimism were frequent during the pandemic. Only 1.3% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and it was only significantly associated with comorbidities (p=0.03; Chi Test). A significant difference was found in economic dependence and monthly income when compared between before and during the pandemic. This study provides probably the best possible assessment of the clinical, social, and economic effects of the pandemic on patients with an already proven diagnosis of AD.
PubMed: 34457107
DOI: 10.1016/j.waojou.2021.100571