Studies from the last decade show the high prevalence of traumatic experiences, especially physical and/or sexual childhood abuse, among patients with depression. The results indicate that patients reporting traumatic experiences had earlier onset of depression, more depressive episodes and higher intensity of different psychopathological symptoms, compared to patients without the history of trauma exposure. The participants of present study were patients with depressive disorder diagnosis (n=37). The instruments were self-estimated questionnaires measuring intensity of psychopathological symptoms (SCL-90-R), number and kind of experienced traumatic events (Life Events Checklist, SLESQ), intensity of posttraumatic symptoms (IES) as well as sociodemographic factors and the history of illness. Results show that nearly 96% of depressed patients reported at least one traumatic experience and 65% of them reported childhood abuse (51% - physical and 27% - sexual abuse). Patients who had higher trauma exposure (greater number of traumatic events), were higher on scales of hostility, paranoid ideations and interpersonal sensitivity as well as on the scale of posttraumatic symptoms - compared to patients with lower trauma exposure. Similar results were found when patients reporting childhood abuse were compared to patients without such experiences. Patients, who experienced childhood abuse, reported also earlier age of the onset of depression and over three times more psychiatric hospitalizations than not-abused ones.
The paper presents results of psychometric analyses of the Polish translation of the Beck's Depression Inventory BDI-II. The sample included 456 subjects - 337 controls, 43 patients with depressive episodes and disorders (19 - current episode mild and moderate, 24 - current episode severe), 26 patients with anxiety disorders including mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, as well as 23 male prisoners and 27 females, experiencing domestic violence. The analyses comprise factorial structure of BDI-II items and their criterion-related validity (correlation with medical diagnosis of depression and severity of depression obtained by Clinical Global Impression - Severity Scale), as well as reliability and validity of the total BDI-II scale, done in control and clinical groups. The validity studies of the BDI-II scale were focused on construct-oriented validity (correlations with scales of TALEIA-400A inventory, assessing clinical disorders) and criterion-oriented validity (analyses of differences of BDI-II scores among control, demographic and clinical samples). Finally, the culture specific norms in the form of cut-off scores, differing controls and depressed subjects, were derived for diagnosing the mild and severe depression, as well as several indices of validity of diagnosis (like 'total misclassification rate', 'sensitivity', etc.). The results indicate the very high reliability and validity of the BDI-II translation, fully equivalent to the original version, what enables to recommend this inventory for use in scientific research and clinical practice regarding Polish-speaking subjects.
The modern state of geographical studies on problems of peripherality in Ukraine has been analyzed. Three main factors which influence the intensity of carrying out such studies were determined: the influence of Soviet and Russian geographical science; the connection between studies of peripherality and the scientific range of economic-depression problems; and the specific features of the modern development of Ukrainian human-geography. The general features of a study of this range of problems in Ukraine at the regional and global level; structural characteristics of center, semi-periphery and periphery; and approaches by Ukrainian scientists have been described in relation to the mechanisms of forming peripherality, along with methods for its study and criteria of selection.
Obesity as illness of million people on all over the world is being investigated in many different clinical trials by many group of scientists. Attempt of revealing and understanding of every single factor which may influence on occurring obesity will take us many years. Obesity affects more and more adults and children each year. Most interesting trials of obesity are these which connect many disciplines. Psychological and neuropsychological data connected with biochemical, molecular and genetic results are important in completing etiopathology of obesity. Searching for endogenic substances influences on energetic balance leads to finding new rules for well known substances as cortisol or leptin. New interesting substances connected with nutrition are found also very often. For example, visfatin is compound which roles id pathogenesis of obesity is not well known. Observation of results recently published suggests that particularly interesting data are these where psychological and neuropsychological data are combination with genetic data. Genetic study among candidate genes as BDNF, DAT1, 5-HT2A indicates existence of specific polymorphism which predispose to higher BMI. Obesity is important and interesting for many medical and psychological scientists. Many aspects of obesity's problems are challenge for investigators. The results of clinical trials may give hope for obese patients for improving quality of life and better functioning in daily life.
Background. Clinical studies confirm that depression is a common consequence of pain. Early detection of depression in people with low back pain could contribute to obtaining better results of rehabilitation. Goal. Evaluation of the prevalence of depression in people with low back pain. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in the Rehabilitation Clinic of University of Management and Administration in Zamość from August to December 2010. We studied 101 subjects (80 women and 21 men) aged 25 — 75 years (mean age — 54,7 years). The occurrence of depression was examined using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Own survey concerned: social history, gender, height, weight, age. Results. The prevalence of depression in the group was 60.4% (62.5% women and 52.4% men). The average age of people with depression and without depression differed significantly and was respectively 56.59 and 51.63 years (p= 0.015). Conclusions. Depression applicable 6 in 10 people treated for low back pain. People with low back pain increases the risk of depression with age. People with low back pain should be intensified psychological care.
The aim of this study was to investigate sociodemographic factors that affect self-esteem in two culturally diverse cities of Turkey. A total of 860 subjects selected by stratified random sampling method were included. Sociodemographic characteristics, self-esteem, depression levels, perceived loneliness, support levels and anxiety levels were investigated. Self-esteem was found to be negatively related to depression. Situational and continuous anxiety levels were found to be positively related to perceived social and family support levels. Only education level was found to have a direct effect on self-esteem. The level of income, family structure, number of siblings and the province of residence were found to have an indirect effect on self-esteem. The self-esteem of inhabitants of the western city of Izmir was higher and determined mainly by education and financial levels.
In a research on a group of senior citizens (N = 101, aged 60-87 yrs), the highly loaded items in the Anxiety-Insomnia Subscale of the General Health Questionnaire-28 imply that advancing age is a risk factor for the onset of the so-called minor depressions. In addition, it was found that the symptoms anxiety/insomnia are more highly loaded among senior citizens than in a group of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, thus giving support to the view that there may be considerable discrepancy between real indicators of the quality of life and that experienced by an individual.
The psychological responses to disease were examined in patients with malignant and benign breast disease. Participants completed measures of depression, anxiety, stress, emotional expressivity and behavioral reactions to disease. The authors found that a high proportion of female patients with malignant breast disease are depressive, anxious and distressed. Significant differences were noted between the two groups on anxiety and stress scales. Both groups of patients revealed significant differences in depression symptoms, anxiety and stress due to education level and age. The perceived severity of illness has an important effect on the degree of anxiety. Social support lowered the expression of negative emotions in patients with malignant breast disease.
Backcground. Depression is one of the most severe health issues of the modern medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between depression and neck pain. Material and method. The study involved 60 patients aged 37–82 years (mean age: 63 ± 10 years) treated for neck pain at the Rehabilitation Department of Zamość University of Management and Administration. Depression symptoms were assessed with a Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). It was also used a Acceptance of Illness Scale. Results. The studied group demonstrated statistically significant decrease of depression after rehabilitation (SDS: p<0,001). The research did not show statistically significant increase of acceptance of illness degree (AIS: p=0,48). Conclusions. Rehabilitation decreases intensity of depression. In a subjective opinion, rehabilitation has no improvement on acceptance of illness degree.
The aim of this work was to investigate the links between the trauma of loss, depression and body image in young adults. In connection to the attachment theory (psychodynamic point of view), and from the perspective of the contemporary psychology of personality and the social psychology we accepted the presumption stating that the experience of trauma of loss in life of young adults can be connected with the occurrence of depressive states and with changes in their body image. In terms of controversies, concerning the definition of the term 'trauma' in the literature, a list of several losses was created, that we defined as the 'trauma of loss'. The concept of body image was defined as a mental representation of a human's body, which is usually unconscious and have cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects. Body image is a part of person's identity. The subjects of this study were 150 students of five different universities in Warsaw (30 persons from each university) in the age between 18 and 26 years, such as the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw University of Technology, the Medical University of Warsaw, the Warsaw School of Economics and the Academy of Fine Arts. The subjects filled in a survey, concerning different forms of losses, that they could possible experience in their lives, 'The Multidimensional Bod - Self Relations Questionnaire - (MBSRQ)' of Thomas F. Cash and 'The Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition - (BDI -II)' of Aaron T. Beck. The obtained results show that the experience of trauma of loss in young adults is connected with the experience of depression and with changes on some dimensions of their body image. The outcome of the analysis proved that the persons 'with trauma' differ from the persons without losses in such categories of perceptions of their body, like: the evaluation of the appearance, the fitness orientation, the physical fitness, the somatic health and the overweight preoccupation. Depending on the localization in time of the traumatic experience (in the last 12 months, earlier and in childhood) the body image of the subjects differed.
There are still in small numbers research aimed on the identification of mechanisms and correlates of depressed mood. The article presents the preliminary results on emotional functioning in subjects with depressive tendencies concerning the mood dynamics, emotion regulation strategies and attentional processing of emotional stimuli.The data analysis revealed: (1) the specificity of mood dynamics (reflected in the decreased energetic arousal) in subclinically depressed subjects under the examination situation; (2) the subclinically depressed individuals have been found to be more likely to use the mood decreasing strategies; (3) in these subjects the attentional processing of emotional stimuli depends on the different individual characteristics (mainly temperamental ones) and also contextual factors; (4) the depressive tendencies differentiate the attentional processing of positive not negative stimuli.
Early and accurate diagnosis and possibility of differentiating forms of depression is an important aim for psychiatrists. Psychophysiologists try to analyze respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a valuable index, which can have utility in this field. RSA is a natural variability of heart rate, with frequency equal to frequency of breathing. An origin of RSA is quite complex, since this arrhythmia is influenced by vagus nerve activity as well as by the central respiratory generator, which controls the movements of the lungs. It is possible, that different factors responsible for frequency and amplitude of RSA are independent of each other. An interesting conception, which tries to explain a mechanism underlying RSA, is the Porges' theory. In this researcher opinion a periodic fluctuations in heart rate are connected with physiological self-regulatory processes. A heart rate variability assessment is usually executed on the basis of tachogram. The spectral analysis allows its decomposition into components of different frequencies. Summarized amplitude of fluctuations in each band of frequency is derived from the power function. The value of this function for about 0.2 Hz is the RSA level. Among depressed individuals, as well as among patients with some other pathologies, low RSA is observed. Different therapeutic methods, which reduce symptoms and improve a patient state, also significantly increase RSA amplitude. These observations lead to conclusion that low RSA is associated with emotion regulation difficulties observed in patients with depression.
This article takes another look at a question which has always perplexed Adam Mickiewicz's biographers: why the poet kept postponing his departure for Poland after the news about the uprising had reached Rome. His procrastination, treated as a personal drama, was usually glossed over; those commentators who did mention it, went to great lengths to find some justification for the delay. Their explanations can be divided into two classes: those citing external pressures and circumstances (eg. Mickiewicz's financial problems, or his involvement in a secret assignment), and those that prioritize various personal factors, eg. his alleged lack of faith in the success of the uprising, his presumed allegiance to Lithuania, or the declarative nature of his patriotism. Having said that it seems that Mickiewicz's reaction can yet be explained in a different way. His behaviour at that time may suggest that he suffered from a deep depression. That depression could have been the cause - and not the result, as hitherto assumed - of his procrastination. This scenario seems all the more likely as we know of severe depression recurring at other points of the poet's life
This paper presents the analyses of limitations in working memory functions among older adults in comparison to depressed students and to appropriate control participants. The first part reviews the newest findings from the neuroimaging studies on working memory among depressed and older adults. These studies showed some interesting similarities in activation of brain regions involved in working memory functioning and its specific pattern in either depressed or elder persons. The next part presents the reanalysis of the performance of more or less complex working memory tasks by depressed and older adults. In these reanalyses the authors applied the Brinley plots for comparing results from different populations and from tasks of varied difficulty. After reviewing research findings they suggest that both old age and depression may limit the working memory functioning, but the mechanisms of these limitations are different in each group.
The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the link between perfectionism and depression by examining the role of self-efficacy as a moderator in the relationship. Using a convenient sampling method, a sample of 570 university students completed Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Correlation analyses indicated that maladaptive perfectionism was positively correlated with depression, and negatively correlated with self-efficacy. In contrast, adaptive perfectionism was positively correlated with self-efficacy, and was not correlated with depression. Moreover, the present study confirms the moderating effect of self-efficacy between maladaptive perfectionism and depression in Chinese university students. The results support the notion that adaptive perfectionism is distinct from maladaptive perfectionism. Some practical implications of the present findings are discussed.
The main aim of the presented study was to find the factors determining life satisfaction in later life. Life satisfaction was defined as subjective well-being with its components: subjective health, self-reliance and symptoms of depression. Social support and objective health status have been measured. Age, education and social situation have been also taken into account.The study was carried out on the group of 318 adults aged 65 or more (186 women and 132 men).The results suggest that there is only weak correlation between life satisfaction and objective health measures, and strong one between life satisfaction and subjective health. There is also weak correlation between these two variables. The findings concerning impact of social support on the life satisfaction are uninformative and need further investigations.According to our findings, there is a greatest positive impact of the education level on the life satisfaction of older adults.The age does not decrease life satisfaction level, although it increases level of health problems.
The paper presents current scientific literature review concerning effect of psychotropic medication on highly integrated functions of brain and mind on biological and psychological levels. The effects of medication is not mechanistic but is dependent on psychological and social aspects of situation of the individual person under treatment. After it's administration the dynamic interplay between different psychological and biological processes occur. The review of neurobiological aspects of placebo effects, action of antidepressants on emotional information processing and anxiolytics on fear processing is presented. The paper presents also the theory of psychosis as a state of aberrant salience and the action of antipsychotic drugs in the context of dampening of excessive salience. The results of this research and theories show how complex are mechanism of psychotropic medication influences on human mind.
The COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions have caused unprecedented interruptions to the daily lives of children and adolescents. This unusual situation has brought stress, fear, economic problems, and limited access to health services, leisure time or sport opportunities as well as a lack of social support from important people. The main aim of this natural experiment was to find out the degree in which of family factors, peer factors and adolescent neuroticism played in changes in depression after the first COVID-19 lockdown. The data for T1 were collected in February 2020 and a follow-up (T2) was conducted in May 2020. In total, 155 adolescents participated in both waves (mean age 14.5 years, 60.4% girls). We used the abbreviated Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale, Psychological Control Scale - Youth Self-Report, Feelings of Being Overly Controlled scale. One question was aimed towards satisfaction with the relationship with the mother and one question was aimed towards relationship with friends. Supportive relationships at home was measured by a subscale from the Resilience and Youth Development Module, and neuroticism was measured by a highly shortened version of the Big Five Inventory.
Self-compassion has received considerable attention for promoting well-being and reducing psychopathology, and preliminary findings generate the hypothesis that self-compassion influences mental health indirectly through adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The cross-sectional study investigates the links between self-compassion, emotion regulation and depression/anxiety symptoms in 420 Slovak adolescents and young adults (Mage = 19.4, SD = 3.2). We examined the direct and indirect effects of self-compassion on depression/anxiety symptoms through cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as mediators. The bivariate correlation analysis confirmed that depression and anxiety were significantly negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal and self-compassion. As predicted, depression and anxiety symptoms significantly and positively correlated with emotion suppression. Mediation analysis demonstrated an indirect effect of self-compassion on both depression and anxiety through a cognitive reappraisal. However, when controlling for the effect of depression, the mediation effect of cognitive reappraisal on the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety was eliminated. The study confirms that cognitive reappraisal affects the relationship between self-compassion and depression by regulating negative emotions. However, the protective role of self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal in reducing anxiety symptoms is questionable.
The study aimed at evaluating the role of anxiety and ruminations in creating cognitive dysfunctions in depressive states. A working memory test was used as an indicator of cognitive functioning and the intensity of depression, anxiety and rumination were measured by questionnaires. The data were analyzed in time accuracy function (TAF) paradigm, which allows for carefully examination of information processing. Series of hierarchical regression analyses showed that both anxiety and ruminations are mostly related to chronometrical aspects of information processing, but in different manners. The ruminations stand for differences between depressed and controls in time needed to start processing the information effectively (the parameter A in TAF), and anxiety for differences in rate of processing (the parameter B in TAF). The results showed that anxiety and ruminations have different impact on cognitive distortions in depression. Ruminations seem to affect the available resources mainly, while anxiety impairs the ability to coordinate the ongoing information possessing.
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