Younger all over: High immunity Burns, David D; Pennebaker, James W; Solomon, George
Prevention (Emmaus),
06/1995, Volume:
47, Issue:
6
Magazine Article
Advice on maintaining a healthy immune system with age is offered. Friendships, expressing oneself, and optimism may all benefit one's immune system.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Distress-driven symptoms are prevalent among older primary care patients and account for a large percentage of office visits and increased medical costs. An experimental written self-disclosure ...protocol has been shown to reduce symptoms and use of health care services in healthy adults. Written self-disclosure as a method for reducing symptoms has not been evaluated in the primary care setting.
To evaluate the feasibility of adapting an experimental written self-disclosure protocol for the primary care setting.
Randomized, single-blind feasibility study.
University-based geriatric and internal medicine primary care clinics.
45 patients 66 years of age or older without a psychiatric diagnosis.
Three 20-minute writing sessions focusing on distressing experiences (in the intervention group) or health behaviors (in the control group).
The feasibility outcomes were patient recruitment, protocol logistics, and patient and provider satisfaction. The clinical outcomes were somatic and distress symptoms, health care utilization, and associated costs.
One third of patients screened were recruited; 96% of patients recruited completed the protocol. Clinic contact time was an average of 55 minutes per patient. Patients and providers reported high levels of satisfaction with the protocol. Reductions in symptoms were minimal for both groups. Use of outpatient services and associated costs decreased in both groups, but the reduction was twice as great in the treatment group as in the control group.
Findings support the feasibility of implementing the protocol as a primary care intervention.
Inhibition or disclosure of traumatic or stressful experiences may affect psychological and physical well-being. Although a diagnosis of cancer can be a source of considerable stress, the extent to ...which cancer patients disclose their cancer has not been previously documented. In the present study, 299 women with breast cancer reported how much and with whom they discussed their cancer in the month following their diagnosis, reported disclosure attitudes, and completed psychological measures. Seven percent reported little or no disclosure to anyone besides their spouse or doctor, while 20-30% reported little or no disclosure to entire subgroups of their social network (family, friends, and health professionals). Degree of disclosure was consistent across social targets. Greater disease disclosure was predicted by younger participant age, greater disease severity, optimism, stress-related growth, and disclosure-oriented attitudes.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Accuracy of perceiving blood glucose in IDDM.
D J Cox ,
W L Clarke ,
L Gonder-Frederick ,
S Pohl ,
C Hoover ,
A Snyder ,
L Zimbelman ,
W R Carter ,
S Bobbitt and
J Pennebaker
Abstract
Type I ...(insulin-dependent) diabetic individuals and health professionals often assume that the symptoms of extremely low or
high blood glucose (BG) levels can be recognized and, consequently, appropriate treatment decisions can be based on symptom
perception. Because no research has documented the validity of these assumptions, this study tested the ability to perceive
BG concentration. Nineteen type I adults, experienced in self-monitoring of BG (SMBG), estimated their BG 40-54 times just
before measurement of actual BG. This procedure was repeated under two conditions: (1) in the hospital (hospital condition)
while connected to an insulin/glucose infusion system that artificially manipulated BG, leaving subjects only symptomatic,
or internal, cues and (2) in the natural environment (home condition), where both internal and external cues, e.g., food and
insulin consumption, were available. Estimates significantly correlated with actual BG for 7 of 16 subjects in the hospital
condition and for 18 of 19 subjects in the home condition. Believed ability to estimate BG did not predict documented ability
in either condition. An evaluation of the treatment significance of estimation errors showed that the majority of errors were
relatively benign. The most common error affecting clinical outcome was estimated euglycemia when actual BG was hypoglycemic
or hyperglycemic.
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