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Biomedical subjects

A A Stone

Publications and source records attributed to A A Stone.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity.

This study sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed versus undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. Sixty healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Development of common cold symptoms following experimental rhinovirus infection is related to prior stressful life events.

Previous studies of rhinovirus infection indicate that about one third of the persons with confirmed viral infection do not show evidence of cold symptoms. Factors that determine which infected individuals will develop colds are not known. Using a rhinovirus inoculation protocol, the authors explored the possible role of recent life events, current mood, and perceived stress in the development of symptoms in individuals known to be infected. As part of a larger study, 17 subjects were exposed to a rhinovirus and were individually isolated for 5 consecutive days; cold symptoms, mucus weights, and tissue use were monitored on a daily basis during this period. Although all 17 subjects had confirmed rhinovirus infection, only 12 subjects developed clinical colds, as indicated by self-reported symptoms and by objective symptom indices. The average number of reported major life events for the previous year was significantly higher for those who developed colds than for those who did not (p < .05). Measures of affect and perceived stress before the inoculation were not different for those who did and did not develop colds. Complementing recent research demonstrating psychosocial influences on experimental infection rates, these results provide evidence that the development of cold symptomatology in experimentally infected individuals is related to prior life events.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

An alternative statistical treatment for summarizing the central tendency of replicate assay data.

Standard assay procedures call for multiple replicates for the purpose of averaging random error from individual replicate scores to obtain a reliable estimate of the true score and for the purpose of specifying the degree of variability within the assay. In this paper we focus on the variability and magnitude of within-assay replicates in order to improve the estimate of the true score. A rule is presented for deciding (1) when individual replicates should be omitted from the computation of the assay's summary score or (2) when an entire sample of replicates should be discarded based on the pattern of replicate scores. It is suggested that this rule improves the reliability of the estimated assay score and this is supported by an illustrative analysis of lymphocyte proliferation assays.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗
PubMed1991

Self-report, situation-specific coping questionnaires: what are they measuring?

Self-report, situation-specific assessments of coping, such as the Ways of Coping Scale (WOC), have been used frequently in recent years. Several potential issues in the development and use of these questionnaires have been identified, including the applicability of coping items to different kinds of stressful events, the definition of the period for which Ss report coping efforts, and the meaning of the "extent" response key that is used for reporting coping items. In this study, 91 college students completed the WOC and were then interviewed about their responses; interview questions were focused on the 3 issues stated above. The hypothesized concerns about the WOC were supported. Many of the coping items were not applicable to certain kinds of stressful events. Also, how the coping report period was defined varied across Ss and the way in which the extent response key was interpreted differed across both Ss and WOC items.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Measuring daily events and experiences: decisions for the researcher.

There has been a burgeoning interest in studying daily events and experiences. This article discusses a variety of methodologic challenges that face daily event and experience researchers. The issues discussed include techniques for measuring events, the development of event checklists, sampling event content, specifying event appraisals, event validation procedures, and the creation of summary measures derived from event checklists. Procedural issues discussed include determining the number of observations and persons needed for daily event studies, the evaluation of response, attrition, and missing item bias, and problems linking event reports over time.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

The effect of exercise on normal mood.

Research has shown that aerobic exercise is effective in alleviating depression. However, the contention that aerobic exercise similarly has an enduring beneficial psychological effect on the mood of normal, non-depressed individuals has not been verified. Research examining the effects of exercise on normal mood has yielded inconsistent findings, due in part to methodological shortcomings. The present study attempted to rectify these methodological difficulties and evaluated the effect of 13 weeks of aerobic exercise on the mood of normal, non-depressed men and women. Groups intended to be non-aerobic and waiting list controls were included in the design, as were a stratified random sampling procedure, measurement of physical fitness, and a seven-day pre/post-program assessment period for both positive and negative mood. Results indicated that, although subjects demonstrated significant improvement in physical fitness, there were no significant changes in either positive or negative mood. Thus, in contrast to effects with clinical depressives, exercise does not appear to have any long-term beneficial effect on the mood of non-depressed individuals selected from a normal, i.e. non-clinical, population.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Self-focused attention, coping responses, and distressed mood in everyday life.

Several questions concerning the relation between self-focused attention and depressed mood were examined: (a) Does the association involve global negative affect, rather than sadness per se? (b) is self-focus associated with specific negative affects other than sadness? and (c) does the association occur at the between-subjects or within-subject level? Also hypothesized was that self-focus is associated with coping responses that may perpetuate negative mood. In an idiographic/nomothetic design, 40 male community residents completed daily reports for 30 days. Results suggest that self-focus is linked with global negative mood as well as specific negative affects other than sadness and that the association occurs on a between-persons, rather than a day-to-day within-person, basis. In addition, highly self-focused men reported using passive and ruminative coping styles, which in turn were associated with distressed affect.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Effects of caring for a demented relative on elders' life events and appraisals.

Weekly ratings of events and appraisals were collected from 19 caregivers of dementia patients and 19 control subjects over 4 weeks. Caregivers reported more negative events overall and rated them as more undesirable than did control subjects, but significant differences were found in events of only 2 of the 11 life areas that were measured. Caregivers' negative appraisals were more frequent and more intense than those of control subjects in virtually every life area. These preliminary data fail to demonstrate a global disruption of caregiver's activities and suggest the importance of appraisals in determining the impact of caregiving.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Law, science, and psychiatric malpractice: a response to Klerman's indictment of psychoanalytic psychiatry.

The Osheroff litigation, which is central to Klerman's paper, ended in an out-of-court settlement. The author states that there is no legal precedent for the so-called right to effective treatment and that the case history was a much more complicated clinical scenario than Klerman reports. He concludes that there is neither in the law nor in the clinical facts a sound or certain basis for Klerman's conclusions or for the sweeping policy reforms and standardized clinical procedures he urges. Although they are directed against traditional psychoanalytic psychiatrists, Klerman's proposals could have serious consequences for the innovation, diversity, and independent thought essential to scientific progress in psychiatry.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Event content in a daily survey is differentially associated with concurrent mood.

Daily life events were grouped according to their life content area and according to the desirability of the event as rated by the subject. Associations among event groupings and concurrently measured daily mood were examined. As in studies of major life events, some event classifications were more strongly associated with mood than were others: Specifically, desirable family-leisure events and undesirable work events were strongly related to mood. The results suggests that particular life areas deserve special attention in understanding environmental stress.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Evidence that secretory IgA antibody is associated with daily mood.

In this study, we examined the secretory immune system, the body's first line of defense against invading organisms, and its relation to daily fluctuations of mood. Specifically, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) was studied. Unlike other psychoimmunity studies that examined all sIgA protein regardless of specificity to invading organisms, ours examined an antigen-specific sIgA response to the oral administration of a harmless protein (rabbit albumin) and monitored the antibody produced in response to the protein. Dental students recorded their daily mood thrice weekly for 8 1/3 weeks, and parotid saliva was obtained from subjects during these contacts. Using a within-subjects analyses strategy, we found that antibody response was lower on days with high negative mood relative to days with lower negative mood, and conversely, sIgA antibody response was higher on days with high positive mood relative to days with lower positive mood. Results from total sIgA protein were in the opposite direction, although not significantly so. These results extend our knowledge of immunological changes and mood, and they suggest that minor life events' role in health may be mediated by the secretory immune system.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Changes in daily event frequency precede episodes of physical symptoms.

Although numerous reports show a direct relationship between life stress and various physical and psychological symptoms, methodological shortcomings have limited the significance of these studies. We present data from a prospective investigation of daily life experiences to provide more convincing evidence about this relationship. Undesirable events increased and desirable events decreased in frequency three to four days prior to the onset of an episode of symptoms. This finding and other physiological reports suggest mediation of this effect by suppression of secretory IgA.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

Secretory IgA as a measure of immunocompetence.

The field of psychoimmunology has rapidly expanded in recent years and various parameters of the immune system have been examined in relation to psychological factors. The secretory immune system is one of the more interesting aspects of the entire immune system because it protects mucosal membranes from invading organisms. Stress-produced changes in secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) as measured by radial immunodiffusion assays have been reported in several studies. We present three reasons why total s-IgA protein, the measure derived from radial immunodiffusion assays, may not be a reasonable measure of immune system functioning, and we suggest an alternative method for examining secretory IgA that focuses on s-IgA antibody response to a novel antigen.

Animals↗