PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 7288428

Coping with sudden blindness.

R Hoehn-Saric·E Frank·L W Hirst·C G Seltser
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The case of a college student totally blinded in an accidental shooting who achieved a remarkably rapid and effective adjustment presented a rare opportunity to study the adaptive capacity of a previously well adjusted person to sudden disaster. Important factors included the patient's extroverted, optimistic personality, the support of a cohesive family, strongly united by shared beliefs and values, the hospital staff's unequivocal acknowledgment of the irreversibility of the injury, and immediate involvement of the rehabilitation counselor. The ability to find meaning and purpose in adversity, shared by successfully rehabilitated prisoners of war or war-injured soldiers and by survivors of concentration camps, appeared to be the most crucial factor of all in the readjustment process.

Explore related subjects

Adaptation, PsychologicalAdultBlindnessDepressionDreamsFamilyHumansMalePersonality InventorySocial AdjustmentCase ReportsJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

R Hoehn-Saric, E Frank, L W Hirst, C G Seltser. 1981. Coping with sudden blindness.. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-198110000-00011

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2005

Experience-dependent behavioral plasticity is disturbed following traumatic injury to the immature brain.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is most prevalent in children and young adults. The long-term effects of pediatric TBI include cognitive and behavioral impairments; however, over time, it is difficult to distinguish individual variability in intellect and behavior from sequelae of early injury. Postnatal day (PND) 19 rats underwent lateral fluid percussion (FP) injury, followed by rearing in either standard (STD) or enriched environment (EE) conditions. The hypothesis was that the traditional enhancement of cognitive functioning following EE rearing would be attenuated when this rearing is preceded by TBI at PND19. Thirty days after injury, Morris water maze (MWM) acquisition and subsequent probe trial retention were used to assess the behavioral effects of injury on experience-dependent plasticity induced by housing in EE at two different time windows. MWM acquisition demonstrated improvements following early EE rearing in both sham and injured animals; however, the degree of improvement was greater for uninjured animals. When EE rearing was delayed for 2 weeks after injury, the injury effect was absent and the effect of rearing even stronger. Memory testing in the early EE groups using a delayed probe trial showed an effect of injury and housing, with the sham EE animals benefiting the most. After the delayed EE, sham EE animals again showed more probe target hits, while FPEE animals did not, demonstrating an enduring memory deficit. These data confirm that early TBI has effects on experience-dependent plasticity resulting in long-term neurobehavioral deficits. In addition, the ability to benefit from environmental stimulation following TBI is dependent upon time after injury.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: a meta-analysis.

A growing body of literature suggests that people often turn to religion when coping with stressful events. However, studies on the efficacy of religious coping for people dealing with stressful situations have yielded mixed results. No published studies to date have attempted to quantitatively synthesize the research on religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress. The purpose of the current study was to synthesize the research on situation-specific religious coping methods and quantitatively determine their efficacy for people dealing with stressful situations. A meta-analysis of 49 relevant studies with a total of 105 effect sizes was conducted in order to quantitatively examine the relationship between religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress. Four types of relationships were investigated: positive religious coping with positive psychological adjustment, positive religious coping with negative psychological adjustment, negative religious coping with positive psychological adjustment, and negative religious coping with negative psychological adjustment. The results of the study generally supported the hypotheses that positive and negative forms of religious coping are related to positive and negative psychological adjustment to stress, respectively. Implications of the findings and their limitations are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗