Psychosomatic medicine
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jul 1999
Predictors of burden and infectious illness in schizophrenia caregivers.
The objective of the study was to test predictive models of schizophrenia caregiver burden and infectious illness episodes for caregivers who had regular contact with their mentally ill family members. ⋯ These data indicate that although schizophrenia caregiver burden and infectious illness are predicted by measures of patient stressors, vulnerabilities, and resources, the specific measures predicting these outcomes differ. The results also call attention to the powerful influence of patient symptoms as a predictor of burden and the presence of infectious illness among caregivers.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jul 1999
Comparative StudyCognitive performance in multiple trauma patients 3 years after injury.
Patients with sequelae from multiple trauma commonly display cognitive disturbances, specifically in the areas of attention and memory. This study was designed to assess cognitive functioning 3 years after severe multiple trauma and to investigate how cognitive performance is related to head injury severity and psychological distress respectively. ⋯ Cognitive deficits in multiple trauma patients were related both to the severity of the traumatic brain injury and to the degree of psychological distress. The strength of the association between brain injury as indicated by GCS scores and cognitive performance differed between different tasks. Neuropsychological testing may assist in differentiating primary organic from secondary psychogenic impairments.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jul 1999
Comparative StudyA comparison of economic and social reward in patients with chronic nonmalignant back pain.
Patients with chronic nonmalignant back pain are often exposed to multiple sources of economic and social reward. At issue in the present study was whether these rewards are 1) correlated with similar or dissimilar outcome variables and 2) able to account for unique variance in regression models of illness behavior. ⋯ Economic and social rewards were both associated with increased disability and depression, but only social rewards were associated with increased symptom reporting. Exposure to economic and social rewards may account for unique variance in illness behavior that cannot be explained by differences in medical diagnosis, symptom duration, pain intensity, depression, or somatization.