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Biomedical subjects

M P Janisse

Publications and source records attributed to M P Janisse.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Imitative suicide in a cohesive organization: observations from a case study.

Three suicides occurred within 3 years in a military unit of 35 individuals. This represented an annual rate 220 times the North American average. A clinical intervention was requested by medical authorities, the goal being to minimize the risk of further deaths. Group and individual therapy was conducted over 3 days and ongoing referrals were made as necessary. In addition, measures of anxiety, depression, and hostility were obtained from this unit and from a unit equivalent in size and job description to examine whether these constructs could be used diagnostically. Analysis of the data indicated that differences in mean scores between the units yielded potentially misleading information, although on an individual basis scores were useful in identifying clients at risk of suicide. When those who personally knew one or more of the decreased were compared with those who did not, variability of scores in conjunction with interviews was helpful in identifying relatively high-risk subgroups.

Adult↗

Additional evidence for the relationship between Type A behavior and social support in men.

This study examined social support as a mediator of susceptibility to coronary disease in Type A individuals. Sixty-four male subjects completed the Jenkins Activity Survey and the Sarason Social Support Questionnaire. The correlations between Type A scores, the speed and impatience and hard-driving competitiveness factors of the Jenkins survey, and Sarason's social support were found to be negative, which was contrary to earlier findings. The authors hypothesize that these differing results may be a function of age and environment. Finally, and pertinent to the mechanism by which social support may be associated with coronary heart disease, systolic blood pressure was negatively correlated to satisfaction with social support.

Adult↗

Type A behavior, heart rate and pupillary response: effects of cold pressor and ego threat.

The present study tested the hypothesis that Type A individuals would respond to a relevant stressor (ego-threat), but not an irrelevant one (cold pressor), with higher heart rate (HR) and larger pupil size than Type B's. These measures of physiological arousal were taken during baseline and during exposure to each of two sequentially presented, but counterbalanced stress conditions: ego threat and cold pressor. The physiological measures of sympathetic arousal were supplemented with repeated measures of self-reported anxiety. Three distinct findings emerged. First, Type A subjects had higher levels of HR in response to ego threat, but lower levels in response to cold pressor stress, compared to non-stressed baseline levels. Type B's on the other hand had slight, but nondifferential increased HR to the two different stress regimens. Second, the pupillary response to light did not produce results wholly parallel to those obtained with HR, or with the hypothesis that A's are more physiologically responsive than B's. Finally the Type A subjects in all conditions reported less anxiety than did Type B's. The present results generally indicate that A/B differences in cardiovascular arousal do not generalize readily across situations or to all autonomic indices.

Adolescent↗

Frequency and intensity of anxiety in university students.

One thousand and ninety-seven university students (455 males; 642 females) named, "...three situations that make you anxious..." and rated the intensity of the anxiety in each situation. Correlations between frequency of occurrence and rated intensity for situations named more than once were negligible for both sexes. While the intensity rating of 62 situations occurring common between sexes was significantly greater for females, there was no difference in frequency of occurrence; however, both the correlations between male and female frequency and male and female intensity were positive and significant for the shared items, indicating that their experiences of these anxiety situations vary in similar ways. Analysis was also completed for three types of situations: interpersonal--ego threat, physical threat, and ambiguous.

Aggression↗