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Biomedical subjects

C E Thoresen

Publications and source records attributed to C E Thoresen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Anxiety, depression, and heart disease in women.

This is an extension of previous research that has reported on psychosocial risk factors in women participants in the Recurrent Coronary Prevention Project (RCPP). The RCPP women (N = 83) were under 65 years of age, non-diabetic, non-smoking and had experienced a myocardial infarction (MI) at least 6 months prior to the study. Baseline data was available on 80 RCPP subjects. Seventy three non-smoking, coronary disease-free women participants in the Stanford-Sunnyvale Health Improvement Project (SSHIP) served as a control-comparison group. Women with coronary heart disease had higher serum cholesterol than controls. There were no case-control differences in marital status, occupation, or number of children. RCPP women had Videotaped Structured Interview (VSI) Type A scores comparable to those of the SSHIP women, but had significantly higher VSI-hostility scores (p < .01). In addition. the post-MI women were rated more anxious and depressed, and had more avoidance symptoms than controls ( p < .01). Additional analyses involved the 65 RCPP women located at 8.5-year follow-up. In these women, univariate predictors of coronary recurrence (N = 13) were body mass index (kg/m)2. Peel Index, low time urgency (VSI) and high anxiety ( p < .05). Employment status, marital status, and education were not associated with subsequent cardiac events. These exploratory analyses suggest that the relations between heart disease and hostility, anxiety, and depression in women deserve further investigation.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1993

Causal attributions and coronary heart disease in women.

The relationship between coronary heart-disease endpoints and attributional style in women has been previously unexamined. This study examined the attributions of 73 postmyocardial infarction (MI) women about their heart disease and explored the relationship between attributions and nonfatal coronary recurrence. Women's primary causal attributions included personal behavior (9.6%), blaming others (19.3%), stress (28.8%), luck (12.3%), and family history (13.7%). The largest proportion of recurrences occurred in women attributing their infarcts to marital problems. Of the attributional ratings, ascriptions involving spouses were the only attributions that met entry criteria for logistic regression (p = .019) after controlling for severity of first infarction.

Arousal↗
PubMed1992

Type A behavior pattern: new perspectives on theory, assessment, and intervention.

Research on the Type A behavior pattern (TA) has been plagued by inadequate theory, insensitive assessment, and insufficient interventions. These problems (e.g., using global dichotomous ratings of TA) have contributed to several failures of TA to predict cardiovascular outcomes prompting concern for new approaches. Conceptual models are discussed, such as a transactional model of TA, social cognitive theories (e.g., self-evaluative processes), and associative network theory (e.g., how emotions distort information). The view of hostility as the only pathogenic feature of TA is questioned. The ethnographic gap in TA research is described, and detailed descriptive and experimental case studies are recommended. Profile measures that assess all dimensions of TA are urged along with contextually sensitive multimodal assessments. Unlike results of some correlational studies, controlled TA interventions, although few, have consistently yielded positive results. Study of TA within an expanded conceptual perspective is encouraged, especially controlled experiments and interventions.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1988

Effects of type A behavioral counseling and severity of prior acute myocardial infarction on survival.

The hypothesis under investigation was that the beneficial effect of type A behavioral counseling on survival after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was conditional on the functioning of the cardiovascular system, as determined by the severity of the prior AMI. Subjects were 862 nonsmoking coronary patients in the San Francisco Bay Area, randomized in 1978 to receive, over 4.5 years, cardiac counseling or cardiac counseling plus type A behavioral counseling. Sixteen baseline factors plus an interaction term (severity of AMI X behavioral counseling) were evaluated for their prognostic significance. Behavioral counseling was not a significant predictor of coronary death in the total cohort, but the interaction between counseling and severity of the prior AMI was (p less than 0.05). Thus, the total cohort was divided into 2 subgroups of mild or serious prior AMI, and independent predictors of survival were isolated within each subgroup. In the subgroup with mild prior AMI, independent predictors were anterior AMI (p = 0.02), plasma cholesterol (p = 0.02) and behavioral counseling (p = 0.05). In the subgroup with serious prior AMI, none of the factors evaluated made a significant independent contribution. These findings suggest that a reduction in type A behavior may exert the greatest protection against coronary death in that subgroup of patients for whom the biologic aspects of coronary artery disease are not advanced. They also demonstrate the importance of considering the level of cardiac functioning before determining predictors of survival or optimum postcoronary care.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1987

Effect of discontinuance of type A behavioral counseling on type A behavior and cardiac recurrence rate of post myocardial infarction patients.

Three hundred post infarction participants who had received type A behavioral counseling in the Recurrent Coronary Prevention Project, (RCPP) agreed to be followed for 1 additional year after stopping 4.5 years of continuous type A behavioral counseling. One hundred fourteen participants who had served for 4.5 years as controls in the RCPP Study, thus receiving no type A behavioral counseling, volunteered to receive such counseling for 1 year. Eleven of the 300 previously type A counseled RCPP participants were lost to follow-up at the end of the additional year. The remaining 289 subjects at risk were found to have maintained their previously reduced intensity of type A behavior. Their previously observed relatively low cardiac recurrence rate during the additional year also did not significantly change. Ten of the 114 previous control RCPP participants were lost to follow-up at the end of the additional year. The remaining 104 subjects who had received a year's type A behavioral counseling showed a significantly reduced intensity of type A behavior and a similar significant decrease in both the cardiac mortality and morbidity rate. These results suggest that the decline in the intensity of type A behavior and also in the cardiac recurrence rate previously observed in post infarction subjects exposed to type A behavioral counseling persists for at least 1 year after cessation of such counseling.

Counseling↗
PubMed1987

Developing measures of type A behavior in children and adolescents.

Development of measures of Type A behavior in children and adolescents is described and the results of two studies to validate these measures are given. Children in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades (n = 120 in Study I; n = 652 in Study II) were given five measures of the Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP): the Student Type A Behavior Scale (STABS); Student Structured Interviews (SSI), scored separately for content and behavior; Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH); and Parent Observation Checklist, as well as measures of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression. Descriptive statistics from the two samples were very similar and indicated that boys scored significantly higher than girls on the MYTH, while seventh and ninth grade girls scored significantly higher than fifth grade girls or boys of any grade on Structured Interview Behavior (SSI-Behavior). Correlations suggested separate self-reported perceptual and behavioral components of Type A behavior in children. In both studies, STABS and SSI-Content correlated moderately well (.48 to .49) but had little relationship with SI-Behavior and the MYTH. Measures of anxiety and depression included to assess discriminant validity were correlated with the self-report measures of TABP (.22 to .56), but showed little relationship with the behavioral measures, especially in the larger cross-validation study. Parallels between these results and those of adult studies are discussed, and the use of multiple measures in classifying subjects is suggested.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Physical health correlates of type A behavior in children and adolescents.

A physical examination including resting blood pressure, heart rate, Tanner scales, height, and weight was administered to 184 students in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades. They completed the Physical Symptoms of Stress Inventory, Health Habits Inventory, and two self-monitoring logs of physical symptoms. School absenteeism, medical records, physician ratings, and family health history data were collected. No significant differences between high- and low-Type A behavior pattern (TABP) subjects were found on any of the physical measurements. However, retrospective and prospective reports of physical symptoms revealed a consistent pattern: high TABP subjects reported significantly more physical symptoms than low-TABP subjects. Self-ratings of stress and tension were significantly higher for high-TABP subjects. High-TABP subjects, however, neither missed more school because of illness nor used physician services more often than low subjects. Further, expected relationships between physical symptoms and illness behavior, including school absence, were evident only for low subjects.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1986

Alteration of type A behavior and its effect on cardiac recurrences in post myocardial infarction patients: summary results of the recurrent coronary prevention project.

One thousand thirteen post myocardial infarction patients were observed for 4.5 years to determine whether their type A (coronary-prone) behavior could be altered and the effect such alteration might have on the subsequent cardiac morbidity and mortality rates of these individuals. Eight hundred sixty-two of these individuals were randomly assigned either to a control section of 270 participants who received group cardiac counseling or an experimental section of 592 participants who received both group cardiac counseling and type A behavioral counseling. The remaining 151 patients, serving as a "comparison group," did not receive group counseling of any kind. Using the "Intention-to-Treat" principle, we observed markedly reduced type A behavior at the end of 4.5 years in 35.1% of participants given cardiac and type A behavior counseling compared with 9.8% of participants given only cardiac counseling. The cumulative 4.5-year cardiac recurrence rate was 12.9% in the 592 participants in the experimental group that received type A counseling. This recurrence rate was significantly less (p less than 0.005) than either the recurrence rate (21.2%) observed in the 270 participants in the control group or the recurrence rate (28.2%) in those of the comparison group not receiving any special treatment. After the first year, a significant difference in number of cardiac deaths between the experimental and control participants was observed during the remaining 3.5 years of the study. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate for the first time, within a controlled experimental design, that altering type A behavior reduces cardiac morbidity and mortality in post infarction patients.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1985

Brief consultation and stress management treatments for drug-dependent insomnia: effects on sleep quality, self-efficacy, and daytime stress.

Brief consultation and stress management treatments to help insomniacs withdraw from sleep medication were evaluated with 12 drug-dependent women. The effects of treatment were assessed by all-night home polysomnographic recordings and questionnaires. All 12 subjects succeeded in withdrawing from sleep medication and showed a number of improvements independent of the treatment received: (a) decreased latency to sleep onset, (b) increased minutes of Stage 3 sleep and total slow-wave sleep, (c) increased self-efficacy, and (d) reductions in some types of daytime stress. Subjects in the stress management treatment compared to those in the brief consultation program showed (a) significantly greater improvement on latency to sleep onset, total wake time, total dark time, and sleep efficiency, (b) less of an increase in minutes awake after sleep onset, and (c) greater reductions in anger and depression. Results of 6- and 12-month follow-up and partial replication of the brief consultation program are reported.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Reduction in type A behavior in healthy middle-aged American military officers.

One hundred eighteen senior officer-students of the U.S. Army War College who were healthy but exhibited type A behavior volunteered to be randomly selected and enrolled into (1) a section of 62 officers who received group type A behavior counseling for 9 months and (2) a control section of 56 officers who received no counseling of any kind. Marked or profound reduction in type A behavior at the end of 9 months was observed in 41.9% of the 62 participants who initially were enrolled to receive type A counseling; marked or profound reduction in type A behavior, however, was observed in only 8.9% of the 56 initially enrolled control subjects. No adverse effects on the military leadership qualities of type A counseled participants were observed by their classmates. Serum total cholesterol and plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol measurements were obtained monthly. The serum cholesterol of the total cohort of subjects rose significantly during a month of considerable emotional tension and stress. Those subjects who underwent a profound reduction in the intensity of their type A behavior pattern also exhibited a significantly lower serum cholesterol value as the study continued than those subjects who exhibited no change in their type A behavior. No significant changes in plasma HDL cholesterol concentrations were observed in the total cohort during the above-mentioned period of stress, nor were any differences in this particular measurement noted between the type A counseled and the control participants.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Behavioral and physiologic determinants of long-term prognosis after myocardial infarction.

We studied the accuracy of predictions of long-term prognosis after infarction in a sample of 118 non-smoking, post-coronary males using: behavioral indices only; physiologic risk factors only; and a combination of behavioral indices and physiologic risk factors. To isolate valid behavioral indices, we measured 49 signs and symptoms of a lifestyle characterized by chronic struggle from videotapes of subjects undergoing a structured interview. Of these, 15 had a univariate relationship to recurrent cardiac events, and four--intensity, self-involvement, periorbital pigmentation and arousal while driving--had a multivariate relationship. Of six physiologic risk factors, one--the Peel Index--was related to recurrent cardiac events. Separately, each model achieved approximately 70% accuracy in classifying subjects into their future reinfarction status; jointly, predictive accuracy increased to 75%. The results suggest that living a lifestyle of chronic struggle increases risk for recurrent myocardial infarction, independently of the risk incurred by standard physiologic risk factors. The need for precise assessment of individual signs and symptoms of this lifestyle and implications for secondary prevention are discussed.

Arousal↗
PubMed1984

Alteration of type A behavior and reduction in cardiac recurrences in postmyocardial infarction patients.

Eight hundred sixty-two postmyocardial infarction patients volunteered to be randomly selected and enrolled into: (1) a control section of 270 patients, who received group cardiologic counseling; and (2) an experimental section of 592 patients, who received group type A behavior counseling in addition to group cardiologic counseling. Reduction in type A behavior at the end of 3 years was observed in 43.8% of the 592 participants, who initially were enrolled to receive group cardiologic and type A behavioral counseling. This degree of behavioral reduction was significantly greater than that observed in participants who initially were enrolled to receive only group cardiologic counseling. The 3-year cumulative cardiac recurrence rate was 7.2% in participants who initially were enrolled to receive group cardiologic and type A behavioral counseling. This was significantly less (p less than 0.005) than that (13%) observed in participants who initially were enrolled to receive only cardiologic counseling. This difference in recurrence rates was due to a lesser incidence of nonfatal infarctions in the patients who had been enrolled in the section receiving type A behavioral as well as cardiologic counseling. These data suggest that type A behavior can be altered in a sizable fraction of postinfarction patients and that such alteration is associated with a significantly reduced rate of nonfatal myocardial infarctions.

Behavior↗
PubMed1983

Self-management psychology and the treatment of childhood asthma.

Self-management programs for childhood asthma are reviewed from the perspective of the psychology of self-managed change. Three characteristics of self-control behavior are discussed: (1) conscious effort, (2) conflict of choice, and (3) focused attention. The predominant model of self-control, the three-stage model developed by Kanfer and Karoly, is critiqued, and an alternate model for conceptualizing self-control, the expanded cognitive social learning model, is proposed. This is an interactive model whereby the individual is represented by cognitive and physiologic factors along with the physical and social environment and the individual's overt behaviors. Influence is seen as being multidirectional and interactive. This model, when applied to self-control programs, requires attention to the multiple ways in which an individual can influence his or her behavior and environment; behaviors, cognitive and physiologic processes, and specific environments must be evaluated as interactive factors in self-control. Based on the reciprocal model of self-control, nine criteria were derived and used for the review of 11 asthma self-management programs. Two programs are noted for their comprehensive application of the psychology of self-managed change to childhood asthma.

Asthma↗