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[Prenatal diagnosis and outcome of patients with spina bifida].

The frequency of new cases of myelomeningocele has largely decreased in the last 10 years in several countries of western Europe; the emergence of widespread prenatal diagnosis is probably one of the main reasons. However, the outcome of spina bifida which eludes the prenatal diagnosis, or in cases where termination was refused by parents, remains badly known. To our knowledge, there is no recent data on the outcome of children with spina bifida. Moreover, available data, depending on their European or American origin, indicate different functional outcomes. This led us to re-evaluate the mechanisms involved in the prenatal diagnosis of spina bifida and the outcome of our patients with spina bifida. The aim of this paper is to give a short description of the "rules and principles" of prenatal diagnosis as it is applied in our centres, as well as a brief overview of the outcome of 137 cases of spina bifida. In the retrospective study, three major aspects were evaluated: 1) frequency and types of surgeries and their benefits; 2) socio-psychological adaptation of the patients; 3) educational level and learning disabilities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Optimism, coping, psychological distress, and high-risk sexual behavior among men at risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

In a cohort of gay men responding to the threat of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), dispositional optimism was associated with less distress, less avoidant coping, positive attitudes as a coping strategy, and fewer AIDS-related concerns. Men who knew they were seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were significantly more optimistic about not developing AIDS than men who knew they were seronegative for HIV. This AIDS-specific optimism was related to higher perceived control over AIDS and to active coping among seropositive men only and to health behaviors in both serostatus groups. There was no relation of optimism to risk-related sexual behavior. It is concluded that optimism is psychologically adaptive without necessarily compromising health behavior. It is also concluded that it is useful to distinguish between event-based optimistic expectations and dispositional optimism.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗

[Temporary vision disorders, accentuated by deficient illness adjustment].

A medical expert's opinion had to be given on five patients complaining about temporary visual disturbances. 1. Haze caused by keratoconjunctivitis sicca; 2. changing refraction related to diabetes; 3. phosphenes in a paralyzed monoculus; 4. double vision with fatigue in myasthenia; 5. presumed elevation of the risk for accidents in congenital nystagmus. The loss of earning capacity in these cases should be calculated as the mean of the earning capacity during the phases of least and maximal disturbance, if it is not yet included in the loss caused by additional stationary defects. Psychological adaptation to or an additional disturbance by the disease has to be considered and may justify a higher loss of earning capacity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The impact of miscarriage on women's pregnancy-specific anxiety and feelings of prenatal maternal-fetal attachment during the course of a subsequent pregnancy: an exploratory follow-up study.

This study assesses the implications a miscarriage history has on women's pregnancy-specific anxiety and feelings of prenatal maternal-fetal attachment during the 1st and 3rd trimesters of a subsequent pregnancy. Thirty-five pregnant women (N = 10 with a history of miscarriage) volunteered participation completing the Pregnancy Outcome Questionnaire (POQ), the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (MAAS and a demographic/reproductive history questionnaire during the first trimester of pregnancy. Of these, 24 participants completed the measures again during the third trimester of pregnancy. Women with a miscarriage history reported significantly higher pregnancy-specific anxiety at trimester 1 than women with no miscarriage history; even when the effects of parity were controlled. All expectant mothers, irrespective of miscarriage history, scored similarly at trimester 1 on the MAAS scales. By the 3rd trimester, pregnancy-specific anxiety had significantly decreased for women with a miscarriage history whose mean scores on the POQ were now similar to women with no history of miscarriage. Maternal-fetal attachment had significantly risen by the 3rd trimester for all women. These findings suggest that having a miscarriage history may not have a long-lasting adverse effect on woman's psychological adaptation during the course of a subsequent pregnancy.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗

Stress experienced by mothers of young children.

Every stage of a child's maturation requires psychological adaptation by the parent. This study was designed to find categories of events that mothers of preschool children find stressful and to categorize the events by context of the stress for the mothers. Data were collected from a purposive sample of 153 married mothers, employed and unemployed, who each had at least one child two or three years of age. A semistructured interview schedule was used. Events described related mostly to typical egocentric behavior of preschool children struggling for autonomy or to events in which the child's well-being was threatened in some way. Events were categorized into four contexts: stress due to the child's negative behavior, stress due to conflict between other demands on the mother and the child's needs, threat to the mother's image or self-esteem, and threat to the child's well-being.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Stressors and strengths among women living with HIV/AIDS in New York City.

We conducted face-to-face interviews with a non-probability sample of 373 women living with HIV/AIDS in New York City. Most were indigent African-Americans and Latinas (M age = 39.61 years). Participants reported considerable stressors. For example, 59% (n = 221) had been sexually abused and 69% (n = 258) physically abused at some point in their lives. In the past 30 days, 9% reported having injected drugs. However, participants also reported considerable strengths, including high levels of spirituality, mastery and HIV-related social support. Multivariate analyses indicated these resources were generally associated with less depressive symptomatology. Findings suggest the need for thorough psychosocial evaluations of women living with HIV to facilitate psychological adaptation, including an exploration of their strengths and culturally-based competencies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The meaning and experience of being a stroke survivor: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the meaning and experience of being a stroke survivor. METHOD: Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 stroke survivors (five face-to-face and five e-mail interviews). The interview data were transcribed verbatim (these were pre-transcribed in e-mail exchange) and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. RESULTS: Four themes emerged from the analysis: Disrupted embodiment and the loss of self; Invisibility of emotional difficulties; Gender, romance and sexuality; and Social interaction. These themes, respectively, revealed that participants often had difficulties with psychological adaptation to the physically disabling aspects of their stroke; they experienced enduring and disabling emotional difficulties; they had a particular concern for the viability and maintenance of romantic and sexual relationships; and they often became socially withdrawn, resulting in an increased pressure on familial caregivers. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present work suggest the need for post-stroke counselling regarding romantic and sexual relationships, as well as promoting acceptance of some of the physical disabilities that come with having a stroke and encouraging positive self-regard. There would also appear to be a need to address the issue of social withdrawal and familial relationships, perhaps when health professionals convey information regarding the person's stroke, and in counselling targeted specifically at family caregivers.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Coping strategies in the self-management of chronic heart failure.

BACKGROUND: A patient's psychological adaptation to heart failure can influence its impact on his or her life. However, attempts to understand how patients cope mentally with severe emotional strain have led to inconsistent use of a plethora of concepts, making communication and clinical care difficult. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to develop a framework for conceptualizing how patients with chronic heart failure cope mentally with their illness, and then use the framework to suggest how GPs can facilitate patient self-care. METHODS: We systematically reduced and reassembled the narrative texts of personal, semi-structured interviews until their interpretation was complete. The interviews were conducted during late 1999 with 62 heart failure patients under GP care in 30 practices across central Auckland, New Zealand. RESULTS: Our framework describes four coping strategies: avoidance, disavowal, denial and acceptance. Disavowal provides a distinct coping strategy through which patients, who basically understand the threat to their life situations, seek hope through positively reconstructing this threat. Use of this strategy was highly salient regardless of patients' age, the length of time since their recorded diagnosis or the degree of self-reported limitation of recent physical function due to heart failure. Only over age 70 were avoidance and acceptance also highly salient among patients whose heart failure was diagnosed at least 3 years previously and had mildly limited their recent physical function. CONCLUSION: Many different heart failure patients use disavowal to palliate the emotional strain and find hope. Disavowal is not a problem to deal with but a process GPs can facilitate by implementing a range of suggested strategies through methods such as story telling.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Review of group interventions for pediatric chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVE: To identify treatment studies on group interventions for pediatric conditions and to review their efficacy using standardized criteria. METHODS: Through a systematic literature review, we identified 125 studies describing group treatments for pediatric populations. Group interventions were classified into one of four types of groups distinguished by their primary goals and intended outcomes: emotional support, psychoeducation, adaptation/skill development, or symptom reduction. A fifth category, summer camps, contained elements of the other categories, but due to their unique setting, we considered them separately. Treatments were evaluated and designated as "promising," "probably efficacious," or "well-established," based on the Chambless/Society for Pediatric Psychology criteria. RESULTS: Group interventions for children and adolescents have been developed to increase knowledge of illness, to increase psychological adaptation, and to decrease physical symptoms and side effects. This literature falls on a broad continuum, ranging from descriptive articles with no empirical assessment of outcome to treatment outcome studies employing randomized control conditions and standardized outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Although well-established group interventions do exist, much work is required to establish the efficacy of most group treatments for children and adolescents with chronic illness. Recommendations for improving the status of research are offered.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Attainment and importance of life values among patients with primary breast cancer.

The main aims of this study were to investigate the extent to which women with recently diagnosed primary breast cancer (N = 29) and matched control subjects without cancer (N = 29) differ in perceived attainment and importance of life values and to study prospectively life value ratings during 1 year in a large group of recent attendees at mammography screening (N = 706). Life values were assessed by a study-specific version of a life value questionnaire, including ratings of the perceived attainment and importance of seven life value dimensions. Women with a recent diagnosis of primary breast cancer were found to attribute significantly more importance to positive relations than healthy controls. No other differences between these groups were found regarding the attainment or importance of life values. Perceptions of life values were found to vary as a function of age, marital or cohabitation status, and parenthood, and to be stable over a 9-month period in screening attendees. The implications of the current findings for the understanding of women's psychological adaptation to breast cancer are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Recovery as a mind-brain paradigm.

Struck by the sometimes contradictory representations of recovery that rehabilitation specialists resort to in their professional activity, we examine five models covering the whole range: neuronal regeneration, neuro-psychological plasticity, intersensory compensation, behavioural relearning, and finally the cognitive and affective concern for a new life. This exercise and a review of the literature lead us to consider a two-way relationship between psychological adaptation and nervous restoration. We think that reference to a integral model of recovery is essential for an inter-disciplinary team to find all the means for helping each individual case. The implications appear to be valid not only for rehabilitation, but also for the daily care of the chronically handicapped: it is suggested that they should benefit from a comparative study in which they experience the different modes of action. In special education also, mentally handicapped children should be trained by different methods tested with each child; a sequential programme of alternating periods of verbal, visual, and bodily training is proposed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The role of the psychiatrist in the team treatment of the adult patient with burns.

Improved survival rates for patients with major burn injuries and the consistent finding of significant long-term psychologic disability among survivors of burn trauma call for a redefinition of the role of the psychiatric consultant in the care of patients with burns. In addition to the traditional functions of diagnosis and treatment of discrete psychiatric disorders in patients with burns, this expanded role includes assisting the patient's normal process of psychologic adaptation after injury, assessing and managing burn pain, and facilitating communication among all members of the burn team. The functions of the psychiatrist are most effectively carried out when the psychiatrist is able to participate on a regular basis in the care of every patient as a member of the burn team.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Ordination and cognitive complexity as related to clinical depression.

Personal construct psychology has contributed substantially to our understanding of psychopathology. The few studies of personal construct psychology in depression have focused on the content of self-constructs and cognitive complexity. The purpose of this study was to examine the construct system in depressed patients by investigating the relation of depressive symptoms to the content of constructs about others, cognitive complexity, and ordination. Participants were divided into three groups of 25. The depressed group had either a major depressive episode or dysthymic disorder; psychiatric controls had nonaffective psychological disorders; normal controls were hospital employees who had not exhibited psychological distress. Results indicated no differences among the three groups in cognitive complexity. However, normal controls exhibited a higher degree of ordination than either patient group. Furthermore, depressed and psychiatric controls utilized ambiguous constructs more than normal subjects. Finally, symptom severity within the depressed group related to the use of ambiguous and undesirable constructs. On the basis of these and others' results, a "two-level" personal construct explanation of depression is offered. On a comprehensive level, ordination and the use of ambiguous constructs could be viewed as relating to general psychological adaptation, whereas negative self-construing (and perhaps ambiguous construing) may relate more directly to depression. Therapeutic implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Enriching the portrait: methodological triangulation of life-closing theory.

Some researchers promote a triangulated or multiple-methods approach in studies that examine complex human phenomenon. Nonetheless, problems abound in combining 2 dissimilar data sets from 2 different methodologies. One way that numerical and textual data can be merged is through a research method called statistical triangulation. The purpose of this article was to describe the statistical triangulation of a simultaneous, between-methods causal model and grounded theory investigation that explained psychological adaptation in dying persons. The statistical triangulation involved the analysis of selected patterns of dying from the grounded theory study with the variables used in the causal model investigation. A 1-way analysis of variance confirmed that the variables of social support, physical function, and religious preference impacted end-of-life patterns. Post hoc comparisons validated the conceptualization of 3 patterns of dying (becoming, anguishing/agonizing, avoiding) that emerged from the qualitative data. Although there are limitations to this analysis, statistical triangulation shows promise as a research method for enriching qualitative description.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Risk perception and symptom reporting.

Public reaction to chemical technologies has included a perception that chemical exposure is a contributor to human health problems. Though these perceptions sometimes correspond with technical assessments of chemical risks, at other times they do not. This paper presents a descriptive model of the relationship between perception of one's health status and a set of factors that are used by individuals as part of causal reasoning about the meaning of somatic change. The model incorporates both personal events and experiences associated with somatic change (e.g., stress, sensory cues), as well as aspects of an individual's social context in which perceptions of chemical risks serve as a powerful framework for attributing meaning to chemical exposure. Within this model, the causal inferences that people make about the effects of chemical exposure on symptomatology are viewed as part of a natural, psychological adaptation in which the individual seeks to decrease their uncertainty about the factors or conditions that cause them to feel as they do.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Individual coping style and psychological attitudes during pregnancy and predict depression levels during pregnancy and during postpartum.

Fifty primigravidae were investigated from 30 weeks of gestation until 6 months after delivery to assess the predictive value of individual coping style, conception time and specific psychological changes during pregnancy for the depression levels assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and 5 days, 6 weeks and 6 months after delivery. The individual coping style is an effective predictor of depression levels during the third trimester of pregnancy and 6 months after delivery, but not for the depression levels 5 days and 6 weeks after delivery. A path analysis revealed that high depressive coping and low social support-seeking predict a longer conception time, which all predict a more important lack of spousal support during pregnancy. Higher depressive coping, a longer conception time and a more important lack of spousal support during pregnancy all predict high depression levels 6 months after delivery. The present findings thus suggest helpful predictors for the psychological adaptation during the transition to parenthood.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Diabetic children and their parents: personality correlates of metabolic control.

Test measures of field-dependence-independence and impulsiveness-control were obtained from two groups of diabetic children and their parents, the children being in optimal (O, n = 12) or poor (P. n = 27) metabolic control and, according to the judgment of clinicians, showing optimal or poor psychological adaptation. Children of the O-group scored lower in impulsiveness and higher in realistic functioning than those of the P-group. Differences which parallelled these were found between the two groups of fathers. The P-group fathers were decidedly more field-dependent than their wives, while the opposite was found for the O-group. Group differences of the kind obtained were seen as possible determinants of disturbed family interaction or emotional stress in the child in the P-group and of autonomy and self-reliance in the child in the O-group. It is concluded that the role of fathers of diabetic children has been underestimated.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Defining and quantifying coping strategies after stroke: a review.

The coping strategies that people use after a stroke may influence recovery. Coping measures are generally used to assess the mediating behaviour between a stressor (ie, disease or condition) and the physical or psychological outcome of an individual. This review evaluates measures that quantified coping strategies in studies on psychological adaptation to stroke. The main aspects of the coping measures reviewed were (a) conceptual basis; (b) coping domains assessed; (c) coping strategies used after a stroke; and (d) psychometric properties of coping measures used in studies assessing patients with stroke. Four databases (Medline, CINAHL, PsychINFO and Cochrane Systematic Reviews) were searched to identify studies that used a coping measure in stroke. 14 studies assessed coping strategies in patients after stroke. Ten different coping measures were used, and the studies reviewed had many limitations. Few studies provided definitions of "coping" and the psychometric properties of the coping measures were under-reported. The need for future studies to more clearly define the coping process and to present data on the reliability and validity of the measures used is emphasised.

Adaptation, Psychological↗