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Biomedical subjects

M Feuerstein

Publications and source records attributed to M Feuerstein.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Stress reactivity in alexithymia: decoupling of physiological and cognitive responses.

Alexithymia is described as the lack of awareness of the basis of emotion. Descriptions of alexithymia have primarily been based upon clinical observation with no laboratory validation of the construct. A proposed aspect of alexithymia is an inability to accurately identify emotional stimuli, with a hypothesized decoupling of peripheral physiological activity and accurate report of feeling state. The present study represents an initial attempt to determine whether such a decoupling of feeling state and physiology in response to stress exists in alexithymics. Males (18-25 years) screened for alexithymia using the Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale (SSPS) were used in subjects (n = 15) along with age-matched nonalexithymic controls (n = 15). All subjects were asymptomatic. Each was individually exposed to a stress quiz while heart rate, frontal EMG, and blood pressure were monitored. The Profile of Mood States (POMS) was administered at four intervals (adaptation, prestress quiz, poststress quiz, and recovery). Results indicated that both the alexithymic and nonalexithymic groups displayed an increased heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure response to the stressor. Alexithymics had higher resting heart rate levels throughout the experiment in contrast to controls. No differences in recovery from stress were observed between the two groups. EMG appeared stable across periods. Analyses of mood data revealed a significant increase in tension following the stress quiz in the nonalexithymic group, while the alexithymics demonstrated an increase in tension in anticipation of the stressor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Essential hypertension and social coping behavior: experimental findings.

The present study investigated the hypothesis that mild hypertensives display a distinctive response pattern to interpersonal stress that includes: inadequate social skills, negative cognitive set and cardiovascular hyperreactivity. After completing a set of questionnaires measuring anxiety and cognitive style, subjects monitored interpersonal stress in the natural environment. Following this, blood pressure and heart rate were recorded while subjects interacted with trained role-players in two types of role-play situations: individualized high distress and low distress situations. Hypertensives reported comparable anxiety and were evaluated as equally skilled when compared to normotensives. The cognitive reaction pattern however, discriminated between the groups with hypertensives perceiving less stress and displaying a 'repressive-defensive' cognitive style. Hypertensives displayed a hyperresponse on systolic blood pressure but not on heart rate. With regard to diastolic pressure, controls reacted according to prediction with high distress situations resulting in greater diastolic change than low distress situations. Hypertensives, however, showed the reverse of this pattern with no increase in diastolic pressure during the high distress situations.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Stress and chronic headache: a psychophysiological analysis of mechanisms.

This study investigated the effects of three types of laboratory stressors (stressful imagery, mental arithmetic, pain) on temporal artery, skeletal muscle, general autonomic [digital blood volume pulse (DBVP), spontaneous resistance responses (SRR's)] and self-report measures of distress in chronic migraine, mixed, muscle contraction and non-headache controls. All subjects were female, free of medication at time of testing and equated for age. Headache subjects reported a 19 year history of headache. Results revealed a pattern of digital BVP (constriction), SSR's (increase) and frontal EMG (increase) indicative of a general autonomic-skeletal muscle arousal response to all three stressors in all groups, while the temporal artery response to the pain stimulus was vasodilation. Distress ratings were elevated during the stress periods for all four group. Pain threshold and tolerance and the tendency to utilize cognitive coping strategies during exposure to pain did not differ across the four groups. The results do not support the general autonomic dysfunction theory of migraine or the specificity hypothesis implicating an overreactive temporal artery or skeletal muscle response to stress in migraine and muscle contraction headache, respectively. Despite epidemiological research supporting the stress-headache relationship, the present results indicate that the psychophysiological mechanism underlying this relationship does not appear to involve abnormal tonic levels or phasic response to stress. It is argued that the temporal artery dilation response to pain questions the role of stress in triggering the two stage vasoconstriction-dilation mechanism of migraine and suggests the need to evaluate a four stage model as a potential psychophysiological mechanism underlying the stress-headache relationship.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Self-control and chronic headache.

The relationship between self-control and headache pain was studied in a sample of 42 female subjects with migraine or mixed migraine-muscle contraction headaches. Subjects completed questionnaires evaluating self-control tendencies and social desirability. The McGill Pain Questionnaire was also completed during a single representative migraine headache and daily ratings of headache severity (duration, intensity, disability due to pain) and medication intake were collected over a seven-week period. A significant discriminant function which resulted in 71% correct classification of High and Low Self-Control subjects was obtained. The pattern of responses associated with the high self-control group was characterized by lower ratings of pain intensity, less focus on sensory dimensions of pain and more frequent use of certain medications. A correlation between self-control and social desirability was also observed. These findings suggest that the trait self-control may be associated with a particular pattern of pain, although the influence of social desirability cannot be ruled out as an alternative explanation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1981

Essential hypertension and social coping behavior.

Experimental studies of personality as a psychological risk factor in essential hypertension are reviewed. While no single personality trait has been found to be consistently and specifically related to hypertension, a certain behavior pattern emerges from this literature. This pattern, which includes increased anxiety, inappropriate coping behaviors in socially distressing situations and, possibly, a negative cognitive set, is compared with experimental findings from social competence research. Considerable overlap between the pattern of behavioral characteristics of hypertensives and individuals who display deficits in social skills is noted. The flight/fight concept in stress research, the differentiation of assertion from aggression and inhibition and their physiological equivalents are integrated in a three-dimensional model of social functioning in hypertensives. The clinical implications of this conceptualization are discussed in reference to the need for more comprehensive behavioral approaches to hypertension management.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1977

Cephalic vasomotor feedback in the modification of migraine headache.

The effect of cephalic vasomotor response (CVMR) and frontalis electromyographic (EMG) feedback on control of temporal arterial vasoconstriction and frontalis muscle activity in migraine and muscle contraction headache patients was investigated. A single subject multiple baseline design (across subjects and responses) was introduced to evaluate (1) patterning in the two physiological systems and (2) the effects of CVMR and EMG feedback on headache activity. The data indicated that (a) all four patients demonstrated an ability to control CVMR activity during CVMR feedback and EMG during EMG feedback, (b) idiosyncratic patterns of physiological activity emerge during feedback training, and (c) learned control of the pain mechanism for muscle contraction and migraine headaches was related to reduced frequency and duration of these headaches.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

[Influence on the function of lymphocytes in children with generalised mycosis during treatment with 5-fluorocytosin (author's transl)].

After LT Tests with PHA, PPE and Candidin in mixed cultures negativ or decreased results of cellular immunoreactions were obtained in cases of generalised mycosis, taking into account age-specific variations. The generalised form of mycosis having disappeared, the findings returned to normal. While in other diseases the use of metabolites always diminishes cellular immunoreactions, there is no decrease of lymphozyte transformation during treatment with 5-fc in mycosis. After a successful therapy even an increase may be found in this case. Our studies confirm the opinion that 5-FC does not influence the function of T-lymphocytes.

Candidiasis↗