Psychology, health & medicine
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Pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of pain intensity and pain-related outcomes. Many studies have shown that the level of this phenomenon is higher in women compared to men. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in pain catastrophizing in women during the different phases of their menstrual cycle and whether there is a difference in pain catastrophizing depending on the history of childbirth and dysmenorrhea. ⋯ Pain catastrophizing scores were higher in nulliparous than in parous women. Higher pain catastrophizing scores on the first day of the menstrual cycle were found in dysmehorrhoic women and women who regularly use analgesics for dysmenorrhea. Knowing that pain catastrophizing varies throughout the menstrual cycle may help in creating interventions for pain prevention and treatment in cycling women.
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Children and young people who are classed as "looked after" and "looked after and accommodated", have been identified as being especially at risk of self-harm, however there is little research that has assessed self-harm among these groups. This study investigates self-harm rates, distinguishing between cognitions and behaviours with non-suicidal and suicidal intent among the looked after and looked after and accommodated population of young people educated within mainstream institutions in West Central Scotland. Looked after young people who self-harmed were compared with looked after young people who had never self-harmed on reasons for living, self-critical style, common life problems and academic self-esteem. ⋯ Understanding the factors associated with self-harm and suicide risk is especially important given the already existing vulnerabilities to adverse outcomes associated with being looked after and looked after and accommodated. Strategies for the early identification of maladaptive behaviours among risk groups should take a wider approach beyond those already offered by health services. Utilising knowledge of behaviour and performance within additional key areas of young people's lives such as education could see a unique school-based intervention that can quickly and easily assess academic-related factors linked with self-harm and offer a strategy for early identification of at risk children and young people.
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Emotional exhaustion, argued to be burnout's core dimension, can manifest itself as decreased productivity and job dissatisfaction. This study aims to determine how lack of reciprocity, lack of supervisory support, high workload, and work-family conflict affect emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 295 physicians working at private and public hospitals in Antalya and İstanbul, Turkey. ⋯ Physicians who do not receive either adequate supervisory support or patient appreciation tend to feel emotionally exhausted. Moreover, both workload and work-family conflict increase physicians' exhaustion. Suggestions to reduce workload and social problems in hospitals are offered to reduce exhaustion.
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This study compares and explains differences in perceptions of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and preventive behaviors in people with and without a known genetic predisposition to CVD. A cross-sectional study using two samples was performed. The first sample (genetic predisposition; n = 51) consisted of individuals recently diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) through DNA testing. ⋯ The samples did not differ on lifestyle attributions, efficacy of a healthy lifestyle, or preventive behavior. Individual differences in perceived risk, genetic attributions, perceived efficacy of medication, and adoption of a healthy lifestyle were best explained by family history of CVD. Our findings suggest that in people diagnosed with a single gene disorder characterized by a family disease history such as FH, family disease history may be more important than DNA information in explaining perceptions of and responses to risk.
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The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between different measures of quality of life (QoL), functional status and mood status in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A sample of 40 patients with ALS was recruited and scales for the evaluation of health-related QoL (SF36), patient-centered QoL (SEIQoL), functional status (ALSFRS) and depression (ZDS) have been administered to them. ⋯ Mood status resulted negatively correlated with many aspects of health-related QoL but not with patient-centred QoL. Data suggest that the relationship between functional status and different domains of QoL in this population of patients with a severely compromising disease is not linear and that the satisfaction with life of the patients themselves is not strongly related to the level of physical impairment.