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Subjective Experience (subjective + experience)
Selected AbstractsEgo Boundaries, Shamanic-Like Techniques, and Subjective Experience: An Experimental StudyANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2008ADAM J. ROCK ABSTRACT The subjective effects and therapeutic potential of the shamanic practice of journeying is well known. However, previous research has neglected to provide a comprehensive assessment of the subjective effects of shamanic-like journeying techniques on non-shamans. Shamanic-like techniques are those that demonstrate some similarity to shamanic practices and yet deviate from what may genuinely be considered shamanism. Furthermore, the personality traits that influence individual susceptibility to shamanic-like techniques are unclear. The aim of the present study was, thus, to investigate experimentally the effect of shamanic-like techniques and a personality trait referred to as "ego boundaries" on subjective experience including mood disturbance. Forty-three non-shamans were administered a composite questionnaire consisting of demographic items and a measure of ego boundaries (i.e., the Short Boundary Questionnaire; BQ-Sh). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: listening to monotonous drumming for 15 minutes coupled with one of two sets of journeying instructions; or sitting quietly with eyes closed for 15 minutes. Participants' subjective experience and mood disturbance were retrospectively assessed using the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) and the Profile of Mood States-Short Form, respectively. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between conditions with regard to the PCI major dimensions of visual imagery, attention and rationality, and minor dimensions of imagery amount and absorption. However, the shamanic-like conditions were not associated with a major reorganization of the pattern of subjective experience compared to the sitting quietly condition, suggesting that what is typically referred to as an altered state of consciousness effect was not evident. One shamanic-like condition and the BQ-Sh subscales need for order, childlikeness, and sensitivity were statistically significant predictors of total mood disturbance. Implications of the findings for the anthropology of consciousness are also considered. [source] Journey into and through an early detection of psychosis service: the subjective experience of persons at risk of developing psychosisEARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2009Kate V. Hardy Abstract Aim: This study aimed to explore how persons who have been assessed as being at risk of developing psychosis make sense of and understand their experiences, using a qualitative approach. Methods: The sample comprised six female and four male participants (n = 10), ranging in age from 16 to 30 years, with a mean age of 21.8 years. All the participants had entered into a National Health Service Early Detection service in the North of England, which provides interventions for persons assessed as being at a high risk of developing psychosis. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted to study how persons at risk of developing psychosis construct their understanding and perception of their experiences. Results: The analyses identified three central themes: (i) ,perception of needs', which highlighted how participants recognized the need to enter services and how they identified what they required from the service; (ii) participants' subjective journey; and (iii) participants' orientation to the future. Conclusions: The journey described by participants assessed as being at risk of developing psychosis provides further insight into how persons make sense of their experiences from a qualitative ,insider' perspective. The findings are discussed in relation to the existing literature relating to the early detection and intervention of psychosis and clinical implications are identified. [source] Challenges to antagonist blockade during sustained-release naltrexone treatmentADDICTION, Issue 9 2010Nikolaj Kunøe ABSTRACT Aims Naltrexone is a competitive opioid antagonist that effectively blocks the action of heroin and other opioid agonists. Sustained-release naltrexone formulations are now available that provide long-acting opioid blockade. This study investigates the use of heroin and other opioids among opioid-dependent patients receiving treatment with long-acting naltrexone implants, their subjective experience of drug ,high' after opioid use, and factors associated with opioid use. Methods Participants (n = 60) were opioid-dependent patients receiving treatment with naltrexone implants. Outcome data on substance use, drug ,high', depression and criminal activity were collected over a 6-month period. Blood samples were taken to monitor naltrexone plasma levels, and hair samples to verify self-reported opioid use. Findings More than half [n = 34 or 56%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 44,68%)] the patients challenged the blockade with illicit opioids during the 6-month treatment period; 44% (n = 26; 95% CI 32,56%) were abstinent from opioids. Mean opioid use was reduced from 18 [standard deviation (SD)13] days during the month preceding treatment to 6 days (SD 11) after 6 months. Of the respondents questioned on opioid ,high' (n = 31), nine patients (30%; 95% CI 16,47%) reported partial drug ,high' following illicit opioid use, and three (12%; 95% CI 3,26%) reported full ,high'. Opioid use was associated with use of non-opioid drugs and criminal behaviour. Conclusions Challenging naltrexone blockade with heroin on at least one occasion is common among sustained-release naltrexone patients, but only a minority of patients use opioids regularly. Challenges represent a warning sign for poor outcomes and often occur in the context of polydrug use and social adjustment problems. [source] A review of the acute subjective effects of MDMA/ecstasyADDICTION, Issue 7 2006Chelsea A. Baylen ABSTRACT Aim Although several relatively recent reviews have summarized the neuropsychiatric effects associated with chronic ecstasy use, there is no published comprehensive review of studies on the acute subjective effects (ASEs) of MDMA/ecstasy. Design The present study reviewed the prevalence, intensity and duration of ASEs collected from 24 studies that provided frequency data on the prevalence of self-reported ecstasy effects and/or provided data on the intensity of ecstasy effects. Findings Although hundreds of ASEs have been reported following MDMA consumption, we identified a subset of effects reported repeatedly by meaningful proportions and large numbers of participants across multiple investigations, most of which were either emotional (e.g. anxiety, depression, closeness, fear, euphoria, calmness) or somatic (e.g. nausea/vomiting, bruxism, muscle aches/headache, sweating, numbness, body temperature changes, fatigue, dizziness, dry mouth, increased energy). Only one sexual ASE (sexual arousal/increased sensual awareness), one cognitive ASE (confused thought), one sensory,perceptual ASE (visual effects/changes in visual perception), one sleep-related ASE (sleeplessness) and one appetite-related ASE (decreased appetite) were reported across five or more investigations. Three factors,number of hours between ingestion and assessment, dose level, and gender,have been associated with the acute subjective experience of MDMA/ecstasy., Conclusions This review provides useful information for clinicians and researchers who want to understand the desirable and undesirable ASEs that may motivate and restrain ecstasy use, for public health advocates who seek to reduce biomedical harms (e.g. fainting, dehydration, shortness of breath, bruxism) associated with recreational use of MDMA/ecstasy, and for educators who wish to design credible prevention messages that neither underestimate nor exaggerate users' experiences of this drug. [source] Children's Sense of Self in Relation to Clinical Processes: Portraits of Pharmaceutical TransformationETHOS, Issue 3 2009Elizabeth Carpenter-Song This article presents in-depth accounts of pharmaceutical transformation from the perspective of two children diagnosed with behavioral and emotional disorders. These portraits provide the basis for an examination of the complex interrelation between self and clinical processes. Narrative data were collected in the context of a 13-month anthropological study of the lived experiences of children diagnosed with behavioral and emotional disorders and their families living in the northeastern United States. Participating families (N=20) were from diverse racial/ethnic (African American, Euro-American, and Latino) and socioeconomic backgrounds. Psychiatric diagnoses and pharmaceuticals present tangible constraints in the lives of children that call attention to otherwise fluid and ephemeral self processes. These accounts suggest that psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medications present dilemmas for children's developing sense of self, revealing limitations to biopsychiatric "pharmaceutical promises." [children, self processes, subjective experience, psychiatric disorder, pharmaceuticals] [source] The Camera's Positioning: Brides, Grooms, and Their Photographers in Taipei's Bridal IndustryETHOS, Issue 2 2004Bonnie Adrian This article analyzes the intense orchestration of the bride's appearance,both her physical beauty and her ability to appear to captivate her groom,in Taiwanese bridal salons. Historical circumstance, competitive consumption, and family politics combine to render young women willing if not always eager subjects. Photographers, in turn, attempt to provoke specific subjective states in their clients so as to produce atractive, naturalistic poses and facial expressions. Through attention to positioning processes, the subtleties of the relationships among subjective experience, social performance, and cultural belief are examined. [source] We're warmer (they're more competent): I-sharing and African-Americans' perceptions of the ingroup and outgroupEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2008Elizabeth C. Pinel Researchers currently know very little about how African-Americans regard themselves and their salient outgroup (i.e., European-Americans). The current study examines how experiences with individual ingroup and outgroup members affect these evaluations on two key dimensions in intergroup research: warmth and competence. In particular, the study asks what effect I-sharing (i.e., sharing a subjective experience) with an African-American or a European-American has on African-Americans' perceptions of the warmth and competence of their ingroup and outgroup. Results revealed an ingroup preference on the dimension of warmth when participants had I-shared with a fellow African-American but not when they had I-shared with a European-American. No such ingroup preference emerged on the dimension of competence. Instead, participants exhibited an outgroup preference on this dimension after I-sharing with a European-American. The discussion entertains possible explanations for these differential effects of I-sharing on judgments of the ingroup and outgroup. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Spaces of Work and Everyday Life: Labour Geographies and the Agency of Unorganised Temporary Migrant WorkersGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2009Ben Rogaly In this study, I focus on the agency of unorganised temporary migrant workers , people who travel away to work for just a few weeks or months. Such workers have been relatively neglected in labour geography. Perhaps surprisingly, given the focus on the agency of capital in much of his writing, I build on two arguments made by David Harvey. First, workers' spatial mobility is complex and may involve short as well as longer term migrations, and secondly that this can have significance both materially and in relation to the subjective experience of employment. The spatial embeddedness of temporary migrant workers' everyday lives can be a resource for shaping landscapes (and ordinary histories) of capitalism, even though any changes may be short-lived and take place at the micro-scale. The article is illustrated with case study material from research with workers in the agriculture sector in India and the UK, and concludes with more general implications for labour geographers engaged with other sectors and places. [source] Individual sensitivity to pain expectancy is related to differential activation of the hippocampus and amygdalaHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 2 2010Michal Ziv Abstract Anxiety arising during pain expectancy can modulate the subjective experience of pain. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to pain expectancy. The amygdale and hippocampus were proposed to mediate the behavioral response to aversive stimuli. However, their differential role in mediating anxiety-related individual differences is not clear. Using fMRI, we investigated brain activity during expectancy to cued or uncued thermal pain applied to the wrist. Following each stimulation participants rated the intensity of the painful experience. Activations in the amygdala and hippocampus were examined with respect to individual differences in harm avoidance (HA) personality trait, and individual sensitivity to expectancy, (i.e. response to cued vs. uncued painful stimuli). Only half of the subjects reported on cued pain as being more painful than uncued pain. In addition, we found a different activation profile for the amygdala and hippocampus during pain expectancy and experience. The amygdala was more active during expectancy and this activity was correlated with HA scores. The hippocampal activity was equally increased during both pain expectancy and experience, and correlated with the individual's sensitivity to expectancy. Our findings suggest that the amygdala supports an innate tendency to approach or avoid pain as reflected in HA trait, whereas the hippocampus mediates the effect of context possibly via appraisal of the stimulus value. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Neural systems connecting interoceptive awareness and feelingsHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 1 2007Olga Pollatos Abstract In many theories of emotions the representations of bodily responses play an important role for subjective feelings. We tested the hypothesis that the perception of bodily states is positively related to the experienced intensity of feelings as well as to the activity of first-order and second-order brain structures involved in the processing of feelings. Using a heartbeat perception task, subjects were separated into groups with either high or poor interoceptive awareness. During emotional picture presentation we measured high-density EEG and used spatiotemporal current density reconstruction to identify regions involved in both interoceptive awareness and emotion processing. We observed a positive relation between interoceptive awareness and the experienced intensity of emotions. Furthermore, the P300 amplitudes to pleasant and unpleasant pictures were enhanced for subjects with high interoceptive awareness. The source reconstruction revealed that interoceptive awareness is related to an enhanced activation in both first-order structures (insula, somatosensory cortices) and second-order structures (anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortices). We conclude that the perception of bodily states is a crucial determinant for the processing and the subjective experience of feelings. Hum. Brain Mapping, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The effects of cannabis abuse on the symptoms of schizophrenia: Patient perspectivesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2008William F. Costain ABSTRACT:, This study explored explanatory models used by individuals with schizophrenia in relation to continuing cannabis abuse. Cannabis is known to exacerbate positive symptoms, compound the effects of negative symptoms, and lead to relapse, having a negative effect upon quality of life. If this is so, why would people choose to continue the drug use? Most previous studies exploring this phenomenon have used quantitative methodology where the questions asked have been preset by the researchers and the subjective experience of the patient has been minimized. Qualitative methodology was utilized in this study in order to give voice to the patients' perspectives, and contribute to the knowledge of the frameworks of meanings employed by patients. The majority of participants in this study did not perceive that they had a mental illness and they held strong beliefs regarding the usefulness of cannabis. They gave explanations for their continuing cannabis use that expanded the understanding from previous studies. These included that they sought the drug effects of cannabis use for clarity of voices, control of symptoms, to feel normal, perceived improvement in cognitive function, reduced psychological pain and increased energy. These beliefs may influence a person's adherence with treatment and their future cannabis use. This research has implications for clinical practice as clinicians may lack insight into the importance of the phenomenological beliefs of a person with schizophrenia. This lack of insight by the clinician into the phenomenological beliefs may impact on the development of a therapeutic relationship. [source] Patient subjective experience and satisfaction during the perioperative period in the day surgery setting: A systematic reviewINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 4 2006BN (Hons), Lenore Rhodes RN This systematic review used the Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument to manage, appraise, analyse and synthesize textual data in order to present the best available information in relation to how patients experience nursing interventions and care during the perioperative period in the day surgery setting. Some of the significant findings that emerged from the systematic review include the importance of pre-admission contact, provision of relevant, specific education and information, improving communication skills and maintaining patient privacy throughout their continuum of care. [source] The clinically related predictors of dental fear in Taiwanese childrenINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY, Issue 6 2008CHEN-YI LEE Background. Dental fear has been singled out as one of the most troublesome problems facing paediatric dentistry today. Children with dental fear may avoid visiting dentists; therefore, their oral health protection is often compromised. However, the aetiology of dental fear is still not entirely understood. Objective. This study investigated the dental visiting habit, the previous dental experiences, the conditioning pathway, and the clinically related predictors of dental fear in children. Design., The dental history of 247 children (2,10 years old) was obtained when they came to a dental clinic for treatment. The level of dental fear in these children was assessed using the Children's Fear Survey Schedule,Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS). Observers rated the clinically anxious responses and uncooperative behaviour towards dental treatment in these children. Three stepwise regression analyses were performed to determine significant predictors of CFSS-DS score, clinically anxious responses, and uncooperative behaviour of children, respectively. Results. We found that the CFSS-DS score and clinical anxiety have different predictors, but age , 3.99 years old and cooperativeness in the first dental visit were important predictors for both the CFSS-DS score and the clinical anxiety. Furthermore, the other predictors of the CFSS-DS score were maternal dental fear, unbearable pain during the first dental visit, and visiting dentists in a regular dental clinic; the other predictors of clinical anxiety were first-born, regular dentist, and CFSS-DS score. Finally, the only significant predictor for uncooperative behaviour was clinical anxiety. Conclusion. Children's dental fear and their anxious response during dental treatment were dynamic processes that consisted of many different factors. The direct conditioning of subjective experience of pain was more important than the objective pathway of child dental fear, and the indirect conditioning does not seem influential in this study sample. [source] Healing and Salvation in Late Modernity: the Use and Implication of Such Terms in the Ecumenical MovementINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 380-381 2007Vebjørn Horsfjord This article explores developments over the last decades in the way ecumenical texts, primarily originating from world conferences organized by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, speak about soteriology. Under the headlines, "Salvation Today" (1973) and "Your Kingdom Come" (1980), terminology inspired by liberation theology took centre stage, and a predominantly immanent understanding of salvation was promoted. In recent years a different terminology has taken over, and it is one that focuses on "healing" and "the fullness of life". At its best, the holistic healing approach manages to take up the important concerns from earlier times, such as economic justice, racism and environmental issues, while at the same time giving more room for existential issues and the experiences of the individual The new healing discourse appears to reflect two different modalities of the church's healing ministry, viz. that which is concerned with the causes of suffering, and that which addresses the experience of suffering. The latter was often ignored in the recent past. The healing discourse gives room for new explorations of practices that have been central in the church throughout its history, such as anointing the sick, and praying for and with them, and hearing individual confessions. Openness towards subjective experience also has implications for the contextualization of the Christian faith. There is a new awareness that not only do the causes of suffering vary from situation to situation but so does the understanding of (what constitutes) suffering itself. Changing or varying understandings of suffering give rise to different approaches to its alleviation, and can inspire a rethinking of how we understand salvation in different contexts. The new healing discourse can also be studied in its relationship to cultural trends known as post-modernity or late modernity. The texts under study display very ambivalent approaches to these developments. There might be a tendency for texts that have concrete experience as their starting point to take a more positive view of these cultural developments than do texts that begin with more general theological observations. [source] Fatigue in children with long-term conditions: an evolutionary concept analysisJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 8 2009Margaret McCabe Abstract Title.,Fatigue in children with long-term conditions: an evolutionary concept analysis. Aim., This paper is a report of a concept analysis of fatigue in children with long-term conditions. Background., There is little research focused on the experience of fatigue in children. Previous work has focused primarily on children living with cancer. It is necessary to clarify and refine the concept, and add to the knowledge base that supports ongoing theoretical work in order to improve the clinical care of children with long-term conditions who experience fatigue. Method., English language literature published from 1989 to 2007 was searched using the CINAHL, Medline and PsychINFO data bases. Sixty-two papers and two book chapters were used in this concept analysis. Rodgers' method of evolutionary concept analysis was used. This inductive method helps us to view the concept in a sociocultural and temporal context. Findings., The number of publications focusing on fatigue in children is increasing. The analysis yielded two surrogate terms, five attributes, three antecedents and seven consequences. Based on this analysis, fatigue in children with long-term conditions appears to be a subjective experience of tiredness or exhaustion that is multidimensional and includes physical, mental, and emotional aspects. Conclusions., Evidence suggesting children with long-term conditions experience fatigue is increasing, but conceptual gaps remain. This analysis has yielded a view of fatigue in children that illustrates healthcare professionals' limited yet growing awareness of the symptom. Ongoing study as a means to refine our understanding of the concept could potentially lead to important contributions to clinical care of children with long-term conditions. [source] The political role of illness narrativesJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 6 2000Jurate A. Sakalys PhD RN The political role of illness narratives Cultural criticism is used to describe the political role of autobiographical illness narratives or pathographies. In expressing the subjective experience of illness, authors of pathographies illuminate ideological differences between patient and health care cultures, reveal the dominance of health care ideologies, and explicate patients' moral and political claims. The contributions of these literary works to nursing practice provide direction for relational restructuring. Gadow's concept of the relational narrative is proposed as a way to restore patient subjectivity and agency and establish the dialogue necessary for cultural pluralism in nursing and health care. [source] Thinking ,taller': sharing responsibility in the everyday lives of children with asthmaJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 13-14 2010Angela Meah Aims., To explore negotiation of responsibilities for asthma self-care between a group of preadolescent children aged 7,12 and their parents/carers and to explore the meaning of responsibility to these children and their adult carers. Background., Living with asthma requires the distribution of a range of responsibilities between children and their adult carers, highlighting tensions between protection and promotion of autonomy. Previous studies have identified diverse factors associated with transfer of responsibility but a better understanding is required of the meaning of responsibility in children's lives and how parents and children negotiate responsibilities. Design., The design was qualitative. Methods., Eighteen child participants aged 7,12 years and their parents/carers participated in open-ended, conversational-style interviews. The framework approach was used to analyse the data and interpretation of data drew upon both feminist epistemology and sociological understandings of children, health and the body which relocate subjective experience at the heart of scientific enquiry. Results., Children demonstrated responsibility by avoiding asthma exacerbators and limiting the effect of asthma on themselves and their parents but there were limitations on children's opportunities to exercise some responsibilities. Conclusions., It is possible to consider responsibility as the exercise of agency by children rather than simply as compliance with adults' instructions and prescriptions. Relevance to clinical practice., Some parents would like more assistance from health professionals in managing the process of increasing independent self-care by children. It is important to maintenance of the health of children with long-term conditions that the distribution of responsibilities between adults and children both ensures children's safety and provides appropriate preparation for independence in adult life. Understanding the process by which parents and children negotiate distribution of responsibilities for long-term conditions could provide a basis for development of interventions to respond to parents' requests for more professional support for managing this process. [source] Social capital, age and religiosity in people who are lonelyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 3 2006William Lauder PhD Aims and objectives., The aims of the study were to (i) investigate age and loneliness, (ii) investigate the association between religiosity and loneliness, and (iii) and explore the relationship between social capital and loneliness. Background., Loneliness is the subjective experience of social isolation and is a risk factor for a wide range of health problems including heart disease and depression. Poor self-rated health, domestic violence and poor economic conditions are associated with greater loneliness. Design., The study was a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of adults aged 18 years and over. Methods., A random sample of 1289 subjects was interviewed by computer-assisted telephone interviewing. This interview included the Loneliness Scale and items from the Social Capital Module of the General Household Survey. Findings., Loneliness is more common in men and people without strong religious beliefs. An income-loneliness gradient is evident. Little support was found for the association between social capital and loneliness. Conclusion., The prevalence of loneliness is relatively stable in this population. Loneliness is linked to income and unemployment and as such pathways between socio-economic factors, loneliness and health need to guide interventions and future research. Relevance to clinical practice., Loneliness is linked to a range of social and economic factors. Current Health Visiting practice recognizes the importance of tackling the effects of poverty and social deprivation and places community building at the core of much Health Visiting practice. This broad community level approach can usefully transfer into all community nursing and health promotion activity. [source] You still feel different: the experience and meaning of women's self-injury in the context of a lesbian or bisexual identityJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2004Natasha Alexander Abstract This article reports an intensive qualitative study of the subjective experience and meaning of self-injury for 16 women who identified as lesbian or bisexual and who had deliberately self-injured on repeated occasions. In individual interviews, the women talked about their experiences of self-injury and the role it played in their lives as lesbian or bisexual women. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to elicit themes arising within their accounts. These highlighted a number of ways in which social and contextual factors contributed to the development of self-injury. Although many of these factors seemed applicable to any woman who self-injures, there were some aspects that were specific to the experience of lesbian and bisexual women. In addition, the women's accounts raised a number of important issues about the way in which mental health services respond to lesbian and bisexual women who self-injure. It is argued that self-injury can be understood as a coping response that arises within a social context characterized by abuse, invalidation, and the experience of being regarded as different or in some way unacceptable. These factors are especially salient in the lives of women, and they emerge particularly strongly as part of the experience of women who are developing a lesbian or bisexual identity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Trauma for all: a pilot study of the subjective experience of physical restraint for mental health inpatients and staff in the UKJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2002G. Bonner Violence and aggression is common in psychiatric inpatient units. Despite the near universal prevalence of restraint, there is very little published research on either the efficacy or the subjective effects of restraint on staff or patients. In this pilot study, semistructured interviews were given to the patients and staff involved in six untoward incidents in which the patient participant had been subject to manual physical restraint. Participants were interviewed as soon as possible after the occurrence of the incidents. The interviews asked the patient and staff participants to identify and discuss the factors that they found helpful and unhelpful during and in the immediate aftermath of these incidents. The incidents generated strong emotions for all concerned. The patients valued staff time and attention but felt that they received too little attention. Both nurses and patients discriminated between permanent and temporary staff. Patients reported feeling upset, distressed and ignored prior to the incidents and isolated and ashamed afterwards. Postincident debriefing was valued by all but was patchy for staff and rarer still for patients. Patients feared the possibility of being restrained. Half of the patients and several staff members reported that the incidents had reawakened distressing memories of previous traumatic events. Further research on the subjective effects of restraint is urgently needed. [source] Influences of adult-onset diabetes on orofacial pain and related health behaviorsJOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DENTISTRY, Issue 2 2010Bridgett Rahim-Williams MA Abstract Objectives: This study tested the hypothesis that persons with orofacial pain and comorbid adult-onset diabetes will experience greater functional and emotional impact than persons experiencing orofacial pain without diabetes. Methods: A random-digit dialing sampling procedure was used for a disproportionate probability sample of 10,341 persons who were screened for orofacial pain in the past 6 months and diabetes. This paper reports on 1,767 individuals reporting toothache pain and 877 reporting painful oral sores. A structured telephone interview assessed diabetes history, orofacial pain characteristics, oral health-care behaviors, and emotional and functional impacts of orofacial pain. Results: The 6-month point prevalence was 16.8 percent for toothache pain, 8.9 percent for painful oral sores, and 9.6 percent for adult-onset diabetes. Individuals with comorbid orofacial pain and adult-onset diabetes differed significantly on many of the pain characteristics and health behaviors compared with nondiabetic sufferers of orofacial pain. Diabetics were more likely than nondiabetics to have pain every day, to suffer negative emotions associated with pain, to experience disruption of daily activities and sleep, to make an emergency room visit for orofacial pain, and to report the current need for a pain-related health-care visit. Conclusions: Although diabetes is well known to be associated with neuropathic pain, these results indicate that the experience of nociceptive pain is exacerbated by diabetes. Findings have significance for the subjective experience of oral pain, dental-care outcomes, and health-related quality of life associated with oral-health outcomes among individuals with diabetes. [source] RESEARCH INTO PAIN PERCEPTION WITH ARTERIOVENOUS FISTULA (AVF) CANNULATIONJOURNAL OF RENAL CARE, Issue 4 2008Ana E. Figueiredo RN SUMMARY Patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) undergoing haemodialysis (HD) are repeatedly exposed to stress and pain from approximately 300 punctures per year to their arteriovenous fistula (AVF). Repeated AVF punctures lead to a considerable degree of pain, due to the calibre and length of the bevel of fistula needles. Pain is a sensitive, emotional and subjective experience. The objective of this study was to measure pain associated with AVF needling. The analogue visual scale (AVS) divided into 10 equal parts (0 indicating lack of pain, and 10 unbearable pain) was used. Patients7 perceptions were measured in three different HD sessions. Pain was considered mild during AVF needling. The buttonhole technique caused a mean degree of pain of 2.4 (±1.7), compared to 3.1 (±2.3) using the conventional ropeladder technique. Although without reaching a statistically significant difference, diminished pain was associated with the buttonhole technique. [source] The Emotional Climate of Nations and Their Culture of PeaceJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 2 2007Joseph De Rivera Societies seem to have emotional climates that affect how people feel and act in public situations. Unlike the emotions experienced in an individual's personal life, these modal feelings reflect a collective response to the socio-economic-political situation of the society and influence how most people behave toward one another and their government. A government may foster a climate of fear to ensure social control, or it may encourage the formation of heterogeneous social groups to facilitate a climate of trust between people from different groups. On one hand, emotional climates may be viewed as reflecting the relative peacefulness or violence of a society. Thus, an assessment of emotional climate may provide a subjective index of human security to complement objective measures of democracy, human rights, equality, and other factors that we presume are beneficial to human welfare. On the other hand, we may view emotional climates as influences that act to further or to impede the development of the culture of peace advocated by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Thus, their assessment may have predictive power, and measuring a society's emotional climate may help us to create desirable policy. In this article we show that it is possible to measure some important aspects of the emotional climates of three nations that have different degrees of a culture of peace: Norway, the United States, and India. We show that estimates of the collective emotions that constitute climate can be distinguished from reports of personal emotions in that the former are more influenced by nation and the latter by social class. It is the subjective experience of national emotional climate, rather than personal emotional experience, that appears most related to objective indices for the culture of peace in the different nations. [source] Before Your Very Eyes: Illness, Agency, and the Management of Tourette SyndromeMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008Andrew Buckser In this article, I examine the ways that people with Tourette Syndrome (TS) manage the motor and vocal tics characteristic of this neurological disorder. To mitigate the powerful stigmas associated with TS, individuals must either remove tics from public view or strive to recast the way that they are perceived. Drawing on ethnographic research with TS sufferers in Indiana, I elaborate three strategies by which this is done, strategies referred to here as displacement, misattribution, and contextualization. These processes strongly affect both the symptoms themselves and the subjective experience of the illness. They also affect the perception of TS in the larger culture, associating the disease with florid symptoms like cursing,symptoms that, although not at all typical of TS, are the ones most resistant to these kinds of management. These patterns highlight how individual agency may actively shape the cultural construction of illness. [source] Cultural Models and Fertility Timing among Cherokee and White Youth in Appalachia: Beyond the ModeAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2009Ryan A. Brown ABSTRACT Much anthropological research and theory concerns how group differences in behavior, subjective experience, and ways of seeing the world (i.e., cultural differences) are created and maintained. Both within and outside the United States, there are dramatic group differences in fertility. In the United States, American Indian groups exhibit some of the highest and earliest fertility. We used ethnographic data as well as structured card-sort and questionnaire data to compare cultural models of childbearing among Cherokee and white youth in Appalachia. The critical difference between Cherokee and white youth was not a modal difference in ideal ages for first childbirth but, rather, the degree of latitude for the timing of having children vis-à-vis other major life events. Group differences in modal norms are often posited as the critical axis of group distinction. In many cases, group differences in the intrapopulation variability among multiple norms may play a more critical role. [source] Quality of life and related concepts in Parkinson's disease: A systematic reviewMOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 11 2007Brenda L. Den Oudsten MSc Abstract Several studies have investigated the quality of life (QOL) of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The purpose of this study was to review the conceptual and methodological quality of quality of life (QOL) studies among patients with PD and to identify factors associated with poor (HR)QOL. Computerized bibliographic databases were screened for publications from 1960 to January 2007. According to a list of predefined criteria, the methodological quality of the 61 studies, was moderate. The term ,QOL' was often used inappropriately. In fact, almost all studies in this review actually assessed health status (HS) instead of QOL. The functioning of patients with PD on physical, social, and emotional domains is affected by PD. Their HS seems to be lower when compared to healthy persons or patients with other chronic diseases. HS studies augment the insight in self-perceived functioning. Therefore, HS is conceived as a valuable construct. However, QOL is also an important factor in health care. Attention towards QOL is needed in order to draw valid conclusions regarding a person's subjective experience of well-being in a broad sense. In order to accomplish this, future studies should apply the QOL concept with more rigor, should use an adequate operational definition, and should employ sound measures. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source] Predictors of positive cooperative behavior in youthsNEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD & ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, Issue 93 2001Hugh McIntosh This chapter explores factors that predict adolescent participation in cooperative activities, which may indicate a predisposition to become involved in community activities later in life. It specifically examines the idea that middle schoolers' subjective experience of challenge may be linked to cooperative behavior later in adolescence. [source] Psychosocial treatment refusal in personality disorder: a comparative studyPERSONALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2010Marco Chiesa There is a paucity of research concerning the identification of features implicated in treatment refusal by personality disorder. This study aims to identify clinical factors that may affect treatment uptake to a specialist psychosocial programme for personality disorder. Following a lengthy assessment, 39 patients (out of a total of 60 referrals) were offered entry to the programme. Fourteen patients who did not take up the offer of treatment and 25 patients who started the programme are compared on a number of demographic, diagnostic and clinical variables, including severity of presentation and subjective experience of the assessment process. The results show that, relative to non-refusers, refusers were significantly younger, single, had a higher frequency of borderline personality disorder (BPD), experienced a less satisfactory relationship with the assessing clinician and had lower treatment expectations. Several dimensions measuring severity of presentation did not make a significant contribution to treatment uptake. A logistic regression analysis showed that assessment-related variables total score and BPD were significant predictors of treatment refusal. The low sample size and the specialist nature of the service are important limitations with regard to the generalizability of the findings. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Schizophrenia and the Motivation for SmokingPERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE, Issue 2 2002Cheryl Forchuk PhD PROBLEM. People with mental illness are twice as likely to smoke than people without a mental illness. METHODS. Data were collected through interviews with individuals who smoke and have been diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 100). The research design included a descriptive, correlational design that described and examined the relationships among psychiatric symptoms, medication side effects, and reasons for smoking; and a qualitative analysis of the subjective experience of smoking. FINDINGS. A positive relationship was found between the age of onset of smoking and the onset of schizophrenia. Subjects reported they smoked primarily for sedative effects and control of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Subjects also reported smoking related to addiction. Most indicated they would like to quit smoking or at least cut down on the number of cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS. Among people with schizophrenia, the motivation to smoke is related to their schizophrenia. [source] Measuring social activities and social function in long-term cancer survivors who received hematopoietic stem cell transplantationPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Karen L. Syrjala Abstract Objective: Cancer survivors report deficits in social functioning even years after completing treatment. Commonly used measures of social functioning provide incomplete understanding of survivors' social behavior. This study describes social activities of survivors and evaluates the psychometric properties of the Social Activity Log (SAL) in a cohort of long-term survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for cancer. Methods: One hundred and two (5,20 year) survivors completed the SAL, Short-Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), and other patient-reported outcomes. Principal components analysis determined the factor structure of the SAL along with correlations and regressions to establish validity. Results: Principal component analysis yielded three factors in the SAL: ,non-contact events' (e.g. telephone calls), ,regular events' (e.g. played cards), and ,special events' (e.g. concerts), which explained 59% of the total variance. The SAL possessed good internal consistency (Cronbach's ,=0.82). SF-36 social function and SAL were moderately correlated (r=0.31). In linear regressions, physical function and depression explained 16% of the variance in the SAL (P<0.001), while physical function, depression, and fatigue predicted 55% of the variance in SF-36 social function (P<0.001). Conclusions: Results support the use of the SAL as a measure of social activity in cancer survivors who received HSCT. Although the SAL is designed to measure social behaviors, SF-36 social function assesses subjective experience and is more strongly associated with depression and fatigue. The SAL appears to be a promising tool to understand the behavioral social deficits reported by long-term survivors of cancer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||