The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
-
Aust N Z J Psychiatry · May 2004
Comparative StudyPsychiatric disorder in women with early stage and advanced breast cancer: a comparative analysis.
To assess psychosocial morbidity in women with breast cancer and to compare the differential rates between women with early stage and advanced disease. ⋯ The rates of psychosocial distress are high, and similar, across patients with both early and advanced stage breast cancer, although the illness related causes of distress are different. These data present a challenge to clinical services to provide a comprehensive range of support services to ameliorate this distress.
-
Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Dec 2003
Chronic posttraumatic stress disorder and family functioning of Vietnam veterans and their partners.
This study examines the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in terms of the three main symptom clusters (intrusion, avoidance and arousal), and the self-report of family functioning of Vietnam veterans and the self-report of family functioning of their partners. A second objective was to determine if depression, anger and alcohol abuse mediated between PTSD symptoms and family functioning. ⋯ Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms of avoidance for veterans, and comorbid symptoms of anger and depression for veterans, and anger on its own for partners appear to be important in the self-report of family functioning. These findings suggest that veterans and their partners have similar difficulties as couples with distressed relationships in the community.
-
Demoralization, as described by Jerome Frank, is experienced as a persistent inability to cope, together with associated feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, subjective incompetence and diminished self-esteem. It is arguably the main reason people seek psychiatric treatment, yet is a concept largely ignored in psychiatry. The aim here is to review and summarize the literature pertaining to demoralization in order to examine the validity of the construct. ⋯ Demoralization is an important construct with established descriptive and predictive validity. A place needs to be found for it in psychiatric nomenclature.
-
Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Dec 2002
What is duty/triage? Understanding the role of duty/triage in an area mental health service.
To describe the duty/triage system within one urban area mental health service in Australia and to investigate the factors that affect the decision to organize a comprehensive assessment. ⋯ A substantial number of potential patients contact a duty/triage worker every day. However, there is little interaction with the primary care sector, limited documentation of risk and a lack of consistency in the documented reasons for the service response. Further investigation is needed of the conditions conducive to consistent quality decision making at the point of entry to a specialist mental health service.