Biomedical subjects

Cecilia Cheng

Publications and source records attributed to Cecilia Cheng.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Flexible coping psychotherapy for functional dyspeptic patients: a randomized, controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the efficacy of a new psychotherapy, flexible coping psychotherapy (FCP), specifically designed for enhancing coping flexibility of patients with functional dyspepsia (FD). The design of this psychotherapy is based on the general cognitive-behavioral model and previous findings on FD. METHODS: We adopted a randomized, controlled design to examine the differences between the target (FCP) and control (supportive psychotherapy [SPP]) conditions. Coping flexibility and outcome measures reported by 75 Chinese FD patients (18-65 years; 35% men) were assessed before and 12 months after treatment. RESULTS: Results revealed that participants who received the FCP reported an increase in coping flexibility as well as reductions in self-rated dyspeptic symptom severity (SDSS), gastroenterologist-rated dyspeptic symptom severity, and anxiety levels (p values <.01). Participants who received the SPP reported reductions in SDSS and anxiety levels (p values <.0001). Although both groups reported a decrease in SDSS, only the SDSS level of the FCP group was comparable to that of a healthy community sample (p = .28). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that FCP is a potentially effective intervention for treating FD symptoms. Its effectiveness may be attributable to the specific components of FCP rather than common psychotherapeutic factors such as emotional support and empathy per se.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Perception of benefits and costs during SARS outbreak: An 18-month prospective study.

In this study, the authors examined perceived benefits and costs of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Mixed accounts of benefits and costs, rather than exclusive accounts of only benefits or costs, were proposed to be characterized by nondefensiveness and enduring changes in psychosocial resources. Participants were 70 SARS recoverers, 59 family members of SARS recoverers, and 172 healthy adults residing in Hong Kong--a SARS-affected region. Results show that participants giving an exclusive account of benefits had higher levels of defensiveness than those giving a mixed account and those giving an exclusive account of costs. Only the perceived impact of benefits given in mixed accounts were related to future accruements in personal and social resources over an 18-month period.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Differing coping mechanisms, stress level and anorectal physiology in patients with functional constipation.

AIM: To investigate coping mechanisms, constipation symptoms and anorectal physiology in 80 constipated subjects and 18 controls. METHODS: Constipation was diagnosed by Rome II criteria. Coping ability and anxiety/depression were assessed by validated questionnaires. Transit time and balloon distension test were performed. RESULTS: 34.5% patients were classified as slow transit type of constipation. The total colonic transit time (56 h vs 10 h, P<0.0001) and rectal sensation including urge sensation (79 mL vs 63 mL, P = 0.019) and maximum tolerable volume (110 mL vs 95 mL, P = 0.03) differed in patients and controls. Constipated subjects had significantly higher anxiety and depression scores and lower SF-36 scores in all categories. They also demonstrated higher scores of 'monitoring' coping strategy (14+/-6 vs 9+/-3, P = 0.001), which correlated with the rectal distension sensation (P = 0.005), urge sensation (P=0.002), and maximum tolerable volume (P = 0.035). The less use of blunting strategy predicted slow transit constipation in both univariate (P = 0.01) and multivariate analysis (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Defective or ineffective use of coping strategies may be an important etiology in functional constipation and subsequently reflected in abnormal anorectal physiology.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Psychological responses to outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome: a prospective, multiple time-point study.

This study examined anxiety and coping responses to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong. Trait anxiety, situation-specific coping strategies, and coping flexibility were proposed as predictors of state anxiety during the early phase of the SARS epidemic. Seventy-two Hong Kong undergraduates (31 men, 41 women) participated in a prospective, multiple time-point study. Participants' trait anxiety and coping flexibility had been assessed in an earlier study. Five months later, they reported their anxiety and coping at each of the four time points during the outbreak. Results revealed fluctuations in state anxiety across time points. Results from hierarchical linear modeling showed that trait anxiety as well as the situation-appropriate coping strategies of avoidance and personal hygiene practice accounted for changes in state anxiety.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Processes underlying gender-role flexibility: do androgynous individuals know more or know how to cope?

This research examined gender-role flexibility across a variety of stressful events, and tested two proposed hypotheses that explicate the processes underlying gender-role flexibility. The knowing-more hypothesis posits that androgynous individuals have a broad coping repertoire. The knowing-how hypothesis posits that androgynous individuals know how to cope according to changing situational characteristics. The coping responses of Chinese university students were assessed in both real-life (Study 1) and hypothetical (Study 2) stressful situations. Results revealed that androgynous participants, who were less depressed than others, were characterized by (a) cognitive astuteness in distinguishing among situational characteristics and (b) deployment of strategies that fit specific situational demands. Results supported the knowing-how hypothesis only.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Cognitive processes underlying coping flexibility: differentiation and integration.

This study investigates how individuals formulate flexible coping strategies across situations by proposing differentiation and integration as two stress-appraisal processes. Results showed that participants who coped more flexibly adopted the dimensions of controllability and impact in differentiating among different stressful situations. They also deployed an integrated strategy: the deployment of more monitoring in situations perceived as controllable but less of this strategy in situations perceived as uncontrollable. Participants who coped less flexibly did not adopt any given dimensions and tended to use more monitoring regardless of situational characteristics. These results suggest that individuals with different extents of coping flexibility differ in the cognitive processes. Individuals who cope more flexibly display a greater extent of differentiation and integration than do those who cope less flexibly. These findings are translated into strategies for stress management workshops.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

Population based study of noncardiac chest pain in southern Chinese: prevalence, psychosocial factors and health care utilization.

AIM: Population-based assessment of noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) is lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, psychosocial factors and health seeking behaviour of NCCP in southern Chinese. METHODS: A total of 2 209 ethnic Hong Kong Chinese households were recruited to participate in a telephone survey to study the epidemiology of NCCP using the Rose angina questionnaire, a validated gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) questionnaire and the hospital anxiety-depression scale. NCCP was defined as non-exertional chest pain according to the Rose angina questionnaire and had not been diagnosed as ischaemic heart diseases by a physician. RESULTS: Chest pain over the past year was present in 454 subjects (20.6%, 95% CI 19-22), while NCCP was present in 307 subjects (13.9%, 95% CI 13-15). GERD was present in 51% of subjects with NCCP and 34% had consulted a physician for chest pain. Subjects with NCCP had a significantly higher anxiety (P<0.001) and depression score (P=0.007), and required more days off (P=0.021) than subjects with no chest pain. By multiple logistic regression analysis, female gender (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.2), presence of GERD (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-4.8), and social life being affected by NCCP (OR 6.9, 95% CI 3.3-15.9) were independent factors associated with health seeking behaviour in southern Chinese with NCCP. CONCLUSION: NCCP is a common problem in southern Chinese and associated with anxiety and depression. Female gender, GERD and social life affected by chest pain were associated with health care utilization in subjects with NCCP.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Cognitive and motivational processes underlying coping flexibility: a dual-process model.

Discriminative facility was proposed as a cognitive process and need for closure was proposed as a motivational process underlying coping flexibility. The dual-process model posits that need for closure influences discriminative facility, which in turn modifies coping flexibility and psychological adjustment. In Study 1, results of structural equation modeling provided support for the dual-process model. This model was further examined using experimental methods (Study 2) and a prospective design (Study 3). Consistent with the dual-process model, results from all 3 studies showed that participants who were more motivated to seek alternative coping strategies tended to encode stressful situations in a more differentiated way. These individuals used a greater variety of strategies to fit different situational demands and were better adjusted.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Differences in automatic social information processing between nondepressed and subclinically depressed individuals.

The present research examined individual differences in automatic social information processing. We hypothesized that because nondepressed and subclinically depressed persons have different interpersonal experiences, they may process social information in different ways. In this experiment, participants were asked to make judgments about social relationships after being reminded of a target person. They had to make these judgments under either a light or a heavy memory load. Results showed that when nondepressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had frequent pleasant interactions, they made a greater number of positive judgments about their social relationships than did subclinically depressed participants. When subclinically depressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had had frequent unpleasant interactions, they made a greater number of negative judgments about their social relationships than did their nondepressed counterparts. Moreover, performance in these experimental conditions was unaffected by memory load, suggesting that automatic thoughts about their social relationships had been evoked.

Cues↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Coping with first-time endoscopy for a select sample of Chinese patients with functional dyspepsia and duodenal ulcer: an observational study.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined how patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) and duodenal ulcer (DU) coped with first-time endoscopy, a highly relevant real-life stressor. We adopted an observational method to enhance the ecological validity of the study on stress and coping. METHODS: A matched case-control design was adopted to compare differences between 30 Chinese FD patients from a select sample and 30 Chinese DU patients (13 females and 17 males in each group) in observed coping behaviors, mood states, and subjective appraisals of endoscopy. A new observation checklist was developed for recording subjects' coping behaviors, and our validation study showed that this newly developed measure had adequate reliability and criterion-related validity. RESULTS: Compared with their DU counterparts, FD subjects 1) used more problem-focused coping, 2) used less emotion-focused coping, and 3) sought more instrumental support. They also had higher levels of anxious mood both before and after the endoscopy than did DU subjects. Moreover, compared with DU subjects, FD subjects reported having more pains and discomfort during the endoscopy and more dissatisfaction with the endoscopy. CONCLUSIONS: Using an objective observational method in a select sample of FD patients, the present study provided tentative evidence that FD subjects tend to adopt an action-oriented coping pattern when encountering first-time endoscopy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychosocial factors in patients with noncardiac chest pain.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to explore some psychosocial factors that distinguished individuals with noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) from those without NCCP, and whether these psychosocial factors were associated with anxiety and depression that are co-morbid factors of NCCP. METHODS: A matched case-control design was adopted to compare differences in psychosocial factors among a target group of patients with NCCP (N = 70), a pain control group of patients with rheumatism (N = 70), and a community control group of healthy individuals (N = 70). RESULTS: Compared with subjects from the two control groups, NCCP patients tended to monitor more, use more problem-focused coping, display a coping pattern with a poorer strategy-situation fit, and receive less emotional support in times of stress. Moreover, monitoring perceptual style and problem-focused coping were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Coping pattern with a strategy-situation fit and emotional support were related to lower levels of anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS: The present new findings suggest that monitoring perceptual style and inflexible coping style are risk factors that enhance one's vulnerability to NCCP. Emotional support may be a resource factor that reduces one's susceptibility to NCCP.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychosocial factors and perceived severity of functional dyspeptic symptoms: a psychosocial interactionist model.

OBJECTIVE: A psychosocial interactionist model was presented to provide a systematic account of individual differences in perceived functional dyspeptic symptom severity. METHODS: In a population-based survey, 4038 Hong Kong subjects (age 18-80 years) were interviewed. Five hundred ninety interviewees (14.6%) met the diagnostic criteria for functional dyspepsia (FD), and 396 of them participated in this study. RESULTS: Results from multiple regression analyses revealed significant main effects of monitoring, emotional support, and coping flexibility on perceived FD symptom severity. A significant emotional support by coping flexibility interaction effect was also found. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings provided support for the psychosocial interactionist model in showing that (1) monitoring is a risk factor related to greater perceived symptom severity, (2) emotional support and coping flexibility are resource factors related to lower perceived symptom severity, and (3) the beneficial role of emotional support is present only among those higher in coping flexibility but not among those lower in coping flexibility.

Adolescent↗