-
Methods (San Diego, Calif.) Nov 2021Because the spread of pandemics depends heavily on human choices and behaviors, dealing with COVID-19 requires insights from cognitive science which integrates...
Because the spread of pandemics depends heavily on human choices and behaviors, dealing with COVID-19 requires insights from cognitive science which integrates psychology, neuroscience, computer modeling, philosophy, anthropology, and linguistics. Cognitive models can explain why scientists adopt hypotheses about the causes and treatments of disease based on explanatory coherence. Irrational deviations from good reasoning are explained by motivated inference in which conclusions are influenced by personal goals that contribute to emotional coherence. Decisions about COVID-19 can also be distorted by well-known psychological and neural mechanisms. Cognitive science provides advice about how to improve human behavior in pandemics by changing beliefs and by improving behaviors that result from intention-action gaps.
Topics: Behavior; COVID-19; Choice Behavior; Cognitive Science; Culture; Decision Making; Denial, Psychological; Humans
PubMed: 33744395
DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2021.03.009 -
Health Psychology Report 2022This study assessed the indirect effect of body image in the relationship between illness duration, optimism, coping strategies and psychological distress as well as the...
BACKGROUND
This study assessed the indirect effect of body image in the relationship between illness duration, optimism, coping strategies and psychological distress as well as the moderator role of being or not submitted to surgery and type of surgery, in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
This cross-sectional study included eighty-seven women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy, who answered instruments that assessed sociodemographic and clinical issues, optimism, coping, concerns with body image and psychological distress. Bayesian statistics were performed to test the indirect effect model that included also the moderator effects.
RESULTS
Lower optimism, lower use of humor, and higher denial and illness duration predicted lower body image and higher distress. Longer illness duration was associated with higher distress. Body image had an indirect effect in the relationship between optimism and distress; between denial coping and distress; between humor coping and distress and between illness duration and distress. Being submitted to surgery but not the type of surgery was a moderator in the indirect effect model.
CONCLUSIONS
Body image is critical to psychological distress. Future interventions for women with breast cancer should consider body image as a target, in order to promote adaptive coping strategies specially when women have had surgery.
PubMed: 38084367
DOI: 10.5114/hpr.2022.113381 -
Nursing Open Feb 2023The aim of this meta-synthesis was to identify and synthesize qualitative research evaluating the real feelings, inner needs and emotional experience of women undergoing... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
AIM
The aim of this meta-synthesis was to identify and synthesize qualitative research evaluating the real feelings, inner needs and emotional experience of women undergoing hysterectomy.
DESIGN
Meta-synthesis.
METHODS
The PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Embase, Ovid Medline and Sino Med were systematically searched until November 2021 and updated until June 2022. Two reviewers independently extracted data into a Microsoft Excel sheet. Qualitative meta-synthesis was performed by coding relevant citations, organizing codes into descriptive themes and developing analytical themes.
RESULTS
Qualitative meta-synthesis yielded three themes and nine sub-themes: comprehensive consideration before hysterectomy (a. disease factors; b. fertility factors; c. opinions of others); emotions and experience after hysterectomy (a. postoperative physical condition; b. psychological resilience to the loss of the uterus; c. changes in the couple's relationship); coping strategies (a. self-denial and avoidance; b. change of perception and self-adjustment; c. seek help from others).
Topics: Female; Humans; Adaptation, Psychological; Hysterectomy; Qualitative Research; Resilience, Psychological
PubMed: 36071582
DOI: 10.1002/nop2.1348 -
Developmental Psychobiology Mar 2021Blunted cardiovascular responses to stress have been associated with both mental and physical health concerns. This multi-method, longitudinal study examined the role of...
Blunted cardiovascular responses to stress have been associated with both mental and physical health concerns. This multi-method, longitudinal study examined the role of chronic social-developmental stress from adolescence onward as a precursor to these blunted stress responses. Using a diverse community sample of 184 adolescents followed from age 13 to 29 along with friends and romantic partners, this study found that high levels of parental psychological control at age 13 directly predicted a blunted heart rate response and indirectly predicted blunted respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity under stress. Heart rate effects were mediated via indicators of a developing passive response style, including observational measures of withdrawal during conflict with friends and romantic partners, social disengagement, and coping with stressors by using denial. RSA effects were mediated via withdrawal during conflict with romantic partners and coping by using denial. The current findings are interpreted as suggesting a mechanism by which a key social/developmental stressor in adolescence may alter relational and ultimately physiological patterns of stress responding into adulthood.
Topics: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Heart Rate; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia; Stress, Psychological; Young Adult
PubMed: 32419144
DOI: 10.1002/dev.21977 -
African Health Sciences Dec 2019Certain real life applications of scientific and social science ideas that knowingly reject accumulated empirical biomedical evidence have been termed 'pseudoscience,'...
INTRODUCTION
Certain real life applications of scientific and social science ideas that knowingly reject accumulated empirical biomedical evidence have been termed 'pseudoscience,' or empirical rejectionism. An uncritical acceptance of empiricism, or even of evidence-based medicine, however, can also be problematic.
OBJECTIVES
With reference to a specific type of medical denialism associated with moral failure, justified by dissident AIDS and anti-vaccine scientific publications, this paper seeks to make the argument that this type of denialism meets certain longstanding definitions for classification as pseudoscience.
METHODS
This paper uses a conceptual framework to make certain arguments and to juxtapose arguments for evidence-based approaches to medicine against literature that highlights certain limitations of an unquestioning approach to empiricism.
RESULTS
Discussions of certain real life examples are used to derive the important insight that, under certain conditions, moral failure can result in the violation both Type I and Type II scientific error types, with catastrophic consequences.
CONCLUSION
It is argued that the validity of all theory should not be assumed before sufficient empirical evidence has accumulated to support its validity across contexts. However, caution is required, to avoid the consequences of an unquestioning approach to empiricism.
Topics: Adult; Attitude to Health; Delivery of Health Care; Denial, Psychological; Female; Health Personnel; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Philosophy, Medical; Practice Guidelines as Topic
PubMed: 32127888
DOI: 10.4314/ahs.v19i4.34 -
Transactions of the American Clinical... 2010
Topics: Concentration Camps; Denial, Psychological; Germany; History, 20th Century; Holocaust; Humans; Jews; Physician's Role
PubMed: 20697553
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery (Hong... 2022This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of anxiety and depression among orthopaedic oncology patients, their quality of life and coping strategies.
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of anxiety and depression among orthopaedic oncology patients, their quality of life and coping strategies.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study recruited patients from the outpatient orthopaedic oncology clinic at a tertiary institution. Data were collected from self-report questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and Brief Coping with Problems Experienced (Brief COPE). Risk factors were analyzed with multiple logistic regression.
RESULTS
191 patients were recruited. The median age was 39.4 years old (IQR 35.0). 29.8% had anxiety, 16.2% had depression, and 15.2% had mixed anxiety and depression. Quality of life median scores differed significantly between patients with anxiety and no anxiety and patients with depression and no depression ( < 0.001). Patients with mixed anxiety and depression had a more inferior quality of life ( < 0.001). Age, psychological health and radiotherapy were inversely associated with anxiety. Physical and psychological health were significantly associated with less depression. Ongoing chemotherapy was significantly associated with anxiety and depression. The commonest coping strategies were denial, behavioural disengagement, venting and self-blame.
CONCLUSION
Anxiety and depression are prevalent among orthopaedic oncology patients. Patients with mixed anxiety and depression had a more inferior quality of life. Patients with ongoing chemotherapy had higher risks of anxiety and depression. The commonest coping strategies were denial, behavioural disengagement, venting and self-blame. Psychosocial evaluation followed by appropriate psychiatric referrals and consultations could be established to facilitate orthopaedic oncology patients during their course of treatment.
Topics: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Cross-Sectional Studies; Depression; Humans; Neoplasms; Quality of Life
PubMed: 35410527
DOI: 10.1177/10225536221093431 -
Psychology & Health 2015Based on a multidimensional model of the caregiving process, the main goal of this study was to examine the direct and indirect links, via acceptance and denial coping,...
Based on a multidimensional model of the caregiving process, the main goal of this study was to examine the direct and indirect links, via acceptance and denial coping, between the caregiving burden and the quality of life (QoL) in parents of children with asthma. The sample was composed of 182 parents of a child/adolescent between 8 and 18 years of age with a clinical diagnosis of asthma. Data were obtained via self-report questionnaires assessing the caregiving burden, acceptance and denial coping strategies and QoL. Results from structural equation modelling indicated a good fit for the mediation model, which explained 30% of the variability of the parents' QoL. Higher levels of caregiving burden were negatively and indirectly associated with the parents' QoL, via less use of acceptance and greater use of denial coping strategies. Multigroup analyses ascertained the invariance of these links across the children's asthma severity, age and socio-economic groups. These findings emphasise acceptance and denial as important coping mechanisms in the caregiving process. Thus, broad-spectrum family-centred interventions in paediatric asthma settings can target the development of the parents' coping tendencies characterised by greater acceptance and less denial as a way of reappraising caregiving demands as less burdensome and improving their QoL.
Topics: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Asthma; Caregivers; Child; Cost of Illness; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Psychological; Parents; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 25601492
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2015.1007981 -
Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2015In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) do not have a unique classification as they can be... (Review)
Review
In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) do not have a unique classification as they can be found within different categories: conversion, dissociative, and somatization disorders. The ICD-10, instead, considers PNES within dissociative disorders, merging the dissociative disorders and conversion disorders, although the underlying defense mechanisms are different. The literature data show that PNES are associated with cluster B (mainly borderline) personality disorders and/or to people with depressive or anxiety disorders. Defense mechanisms in patients with PNES with a prevalence of anxious/depressive symptoms are of "neurotic" type; their goal is to lead to a "split", either vertical (dissociation) or horizontal (repression). The majority of patients with this type of PNES have alexithymia traits, meaning that they had difficulties in feeling or perceiving emotions. In subjects where PNES are associated with a borderline personality, in which the symbolic function is lost, the defense mechanisms are of a more archaic nature (denial). PNES with different underlying defense mechanisms have different prognoses (despite similar severity of PNES) and need usually a different treatment (pharmacological or psychological). Thus, it appears superfluous to talk about psychiatric comorbidity, since PNES are a different symptomatic expression of specific psychiatric disorders.
PubMed: 26491330
DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S82079 -
Child Abuse & Neglect 2012Using judicial files on neonaticides, (1) to examine the frequency of the association between neonaticide and denial of pregnancy; (2) to assess the accuracy of the...
OBJECTIVES
Using judicial files on neonaticides, (1) to examine the frequency of the association between neonaticide and denial of pregnancy; (2) to assess the accuracy of the concept of denial of pregnancy; (3) to examine its usefulness in programs to prevent neonaticides.
METHODS
Quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from judicial files during a population-based study carried out in 26 courts in 3 regions of France over a 5-year period.
RESULTS
There were 32 cases of neonaticides identified; 24, perpetrated by 22 mothers, were solved by police investigation. Aged 26 years on average, the mothers had occupations that resembled those of the general population and 17 had jobs, 13 were multiparous and 11 lived in a couple relationship. No effective contraception was used by women in 20 cases. Psychopathology was rare but mothers shared a personality profile marked by immaturity, dependency, weak self esteem, absence of affective support, psychological isolation and poor communication with partners. No pregnancy was registered nor prenatal care followed. Two (perhaps 3) pregnancies were undiscovered until delivery. No typical denial of pregnancy was observed in the other cases. Pregnancies were experienced in secrecy, with conflicting feelings of desire and rejection of the infant and an inability to ask for help. Those around the mothers, often aware of the pregnancy, offered none. In the absence of parallel clinical data, it is not possible to calculate the frequency of the association between neonaticide and denial of pregnancy.
CONCLUSIONS
The term 'denial of pregnancy' cannot fully reflect the complexity of emotions and feelings felt by all perpetrators of neonaticide and is used differently by different professionals. The term itself and its excessive generalization contribute to pathologizing women while absolving those around them and has little operational value in preventing neonaticides. The authors suggest rethinking the terms presently used to describe the phenomenon of pregnancy denial.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Contraception Behavior; Denial, Psychological; Emotions; Female; France; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infanticide; Mothers; Parity; Pregnancy; Pregnancy, Unwanted; Prenatal Care; Reproductive Health; Retrospective Studies; Young Adult
PubMed: 22858094
DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.05.003