The British journal of clinical psychology / the British Psychological Society
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Review Comparative Study
Psychosocial aspects of sickle cell disease (SCD) in childhood and adolescence: a review.
This paper reviews the literature on the psychological and social aspects of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and discusses the clinical implications of its impact on children and their families. Sickle Cell Disease is a family of blood diseases including sickle cell anaemia (SS), SC disease (SC), and sickle B thalassaemia (SBThal). ⋯ The psychosocial adaptation of children and adolescents with SCD and their families has been associated with the personality and developmental stage of the child, family attitudes and behaviour, socioeconomic status, and social and environmental support. Concerns about the quality of interpersonal relationships within families have also led to investigations of family characteristics and social networks, and some research studies have pointed to different ways of coping associated with specific network and family structures.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effect of rational and irrational statements on intensity and 'inappropriateness' of emotional distress and irrational beliefs in psychotherapy patients.
Ellis's rational-emotive theory postulates that since irrational statements augment emotional distress, replacing irrational with rational statements should lessen distress. This hypothesis was tested in the initial stages of psychotherapy by having 13 and 14 clinical out-patients respectively repeat for one minute either rational or irrational statements about their major presenting psychological problem. ⋯ Although the experimental intervention had no effect on a post-test measure of irrational beliefs, patients repeating rational statements had significantly lower appropriate and inappropriate negative emotions at post-test, suggesting that inappropriate emotions do not differ qualitatively from appropriate emotions and that making rational statements may lower emotional distress in patients. Patients reiterating irrational statements showed no change in emotions, implying that these kinds of irrational cognitions may have already been present.