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Subjective Appraisal (subjective + appraisal)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

The Influence of Congenital Heart Disease on Psychological Conditions in Adolescents and Adults after Corrective Surgery

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE, Issue 6 2006
Kambiz Norozi MD
ABSTRACT Objective., The present study was designed to examine psychological characteristics of adolescents and adults with operated congenital heart disease (ACHD). Particularly it was to be examined whether cardiological parameters may be associated with subjectively perceived impairments and measures of psychological distress. Patients., A total of 361 men (209) and women (152) between 14 and 45 years underwent medical checkups and an interview on psychological and sociological issues. Setting., The medical part consisted of a complete cardiological examination including the classification of residual symptoms according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA), and spiroergometry. The Brief Symptom Inventory was used for depicting current psychological and somatic symptoms. These were assessed on 9 subscales: somatization, obsession-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Results., The analyses revealed statistically significant associations between the degree of NYHA class and psychological symptoms. These findings could not be reproduced for physical fitness as measured by peak oxygen consumption. No gender differences emerged. Conclusions., Our results suggest that psychological measures of ACHD are not directly dependent on their physical fitness or on the severity of residual symptoms. Instead, patients' subjective appraisal of their disease severity and the conviction to what degree one can depend on the operated heart may be important determinants of psychological states. [source]

Illness perceptions and quality of life amongst women with pseudotumor cerebri

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 8 2009
A. Kesler
Background and purpose:, Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is a disorder of increased intracranial pressure without evidence of a space occupying lesion. The purpose of this study was to assess the subjective perception of PTC and its association with stress, anxiety and global quality of life (QOL). Methods:, Fifty-eight women diagnosed with PTC completed questionnaires measuring their subjective appraisal of PTC and specific perceptions of the symptoms, causes, consequences, timeline, controllability and their anxiety, perceived stress, and QOL. Results:, Appraisals of the condition were mostly of loss or threat and those were related to greater anxiety, stress and poorer QOL. Negative perceptions of PTC were related to greater anxiety, stress and poorer QOL. Most of the women attributed their condition to their weight, but adjustment for body mass index ruled out weight as accounting for the findings. Women attributed to the condition symptoms likely to be related to PTC as well as others that seem unrelated. Conclusions:, Our findings underscore the importance of assessing women's subjective perceptions of their condition as a factor related to their levels of anxiety and stress as well as to their QOL. Accurate symptom diagnosis and treatment as well as psychosocial support could assist women who are coping with the burden of this condition and possibly improve their QOL. [source]

Positive and negative changes following occupational death exposure

JOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS, Issue 6 2005
P. Alex Linley
Professionals who work in situations that expose them to death have long been of interest to traumatic stress research. However, the positive changes that these professionals may also experience have not been the subject of empirical scrutiny. This study examined occupational death exposure, death attitudes, subjective appraisals, intrusions, avoidance, social support, and positive and negative affect, and their associations with positive and negative psychological changes in funeral directors. Multivariate hierarchical regression analyses revealed that positive changes were significantly and independently predicted by an approach acceptance death attitude and social support; negative changes were significantly and independently predicted by fear of death, intrusions and avoidance, and occupational death exposure. The discussion focuses on how these findings extend the literature dealing with occupational death exposure, together with a consideration of limitations of the study that inform directions for future research. [source]

Effect of medical and surgical interventions on health-related quality of life in Parkinson's disease

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 6 2007
Pablo Martinez-Martin MD
Abstract Motor-related parameters are the standard outcome parameters for treatment interventions. Nonetheless, subjective appraisals about the consequences of treatment on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are meanwhile established and may uncover important aspects of interventions. We have reviewed the literature with a defined search strategy and collected 61 clinical trials, which have used HRQoL as a planned outcome parameter. The articles were rated similarly as for the Task Force report of the Movement Disorder Society on interventions for Parkinson's disease (PD), but the relevant outcome parameter was HRQoL. We found that unilateral pallidotomy, deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, and rasagiline are efficacious to improve the HRQoL of PD patients. For many other interventions, the efficacy to improve HRQoL in the PD setting cannot be considered to be proven so far. HRQoL should be part of future trial designs and more research is necessary to understand the determinants of QoL in PD. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source]