PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R G Fitzgerald

Publications and source records attributed to R G Fitzgerald.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1987

Reactions to blindness: a four-year follow-up study.

A previously studied group of newly blind adults was followed up after four years. There was only a slight increase in the acquisition of blind skills, while there was a surprising continuing pervasiveness of depression and poor health. A number of variables from the original study and from the follow-up data predicted outcome measures. Significant predictors of depression and distress were poor health, being married, being nonProtestant in this predominantly Protestant London population, and lacking ability to be more independent. Higher social class and an absence of a family history of blindness predicted greater distress. Earlier acceptance of blindness, early learning of blind skills, and better preillness adjustment predicted better coping and greater use of blind skills at follow-up. The extent of the depression and poor health are discussed, and recommendations are made for caregivers.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1981

Marital conflict of manic-depressive patients.

Forty-two manic-depressive inpatients and their spouses, as well as 30 "normal" pairs from the community, reported on marital dissension through the Conflict in Marriage Scale (CIMS), an agree-disagree card sort. The marriages of manic-depressives were significantly higher in acknowledged conflict then those of community pairs, and the patients reported significantly more conflict then their spouses did. There was no correlation between levels of conflict reported by patients compared with their spouses though conflict levels of community pairs were significantly correlated with each other. This leads to the speculation that manic-depressive marriages may be characterized by more complementarity than similarity of partners.

Anger↗
PubMed1981

Dominance in the marriages of affective patients.

Affectively ill patients, their spouses, and community persons were compared on issues of marital dominance, using the Conflict in Marriage Scale. Patients acknowledged, more often than their spouses, that the partner made final decisions in circumstances of disagreement on family matters. Women patients could be effectively discriminated from women spouses and from community women on this issue. Affectively ill women, in particular, saw themselves as yielding after disagreement to the decision of husbands who seldom changed an opinion; their male spouses seemed oblivious to these perceptions.

Dominance-Subordination↗
PubMed1980

Group therapy with blind diabetics.

In a short-term therapy group for adult diabetics who were going blind, the issues most frequently raised concerned diabetic control, complications (including fear of death and retinopathy), rehabilitation, relationship with others, and group awareness. The meetings helped participants understand and accept their condition and begin rehabilitation. "Limbo" as an important and difficult experience is elucidated. We make recommendations for implementing these findings with other newly blind patients.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1969

Broken heart: a statistical study of increased mortality among widowers.

A total of 4,486 widowers of 55 years of age and older have been followed up for nine years since the death of their wives in 1957. Of these 213 died during the first six months of bereavement, 40% above the expected rate for married men of the same age. Thereafter the mortality rate fell gradually to that of married men and remained at about the same leveLThe greatest increase in mortality during the first six months was found in the widowers dying from coronary thrombosis and other arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disease. There was also evidence of a true increase in mortality from other diseases, though the numbers in individual categories were too small for statistical analysis.In the first six months 22.5% of the deaths were from the same diagnostic group as the wife's death. Some evidence suggests that this may be a larger proportion than would be expected by chance association, but there is no evidence suggesting that the proportion is any different among widows and widowers who have been bereaved for more than six months.

Aged↗