Coping style and social support in women suffering from cluster headache or migraine

BACKGROUND: Many clinical neurologists have considered cluster headache patients to differ from migraine patients as to behavioral patterns. There is, however, little empirical validation of such a differentiation. METHODS: Coping profiles and social networks were studied in patients suffering from two kinds of recurrent headache. Twenty-four female patients with cluster headache, aged 23-72 years, and 24 age-matched migraine patients with and without aura participated in the study. All female cluster patients treated at the neurologic clinic of the hospital were included, and consecutive outpatients, who had been referred to the policlinics for diagnosis and treatment, whose symptoms agreed with the IHS criteria for migraine and who had ages matching the cluster headache patients, participated in the study. RESULTS: In the semiprojective coping tests the cluster headache patients were found to be statistically significant more 'positive' as to their anticipated activities in the future compared to the migraine patients (p < 0.04). No other statistical differences were found between the two groups. Compared to randomly selected and age-matched referents in the population. cluster headache patients reported significantly poorer social support (p < 0.01), while no other difference was found when the migraine patients were compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that there are differences in perception of anticipated activities and social support between patients with cluster headache and migraine.     

Influence of job strain and emotion on blood pressure in female hospital personnel during workhours

A homogeneous sample of 56 women who were between the ages of 20 and 59 years and worked in acute emergency care, child psychiatry, or a pediatric outpatient clinic comprised the subjects of this study to determine the relationship between job strain and blood pressure. Job strain was measured with a standardized questionnaire, and blood pressure during workhours with self-triggered equipment. Endocrine factors (morning concentration of plasma prolactin, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone) and emotional states recorded in diaries were also studied. Significant interrelationships occurred among perceived job strain, plasma prolactin, and diastolic blood pressure during workhours even when body mass index, age, family history of hypertension, level of education, and mood state were adjusted for in a multiple regression analysis. Thus job strain of female care givers was associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure during workhours and also with diastolic blood pressure at rest, but not with blood pressure during leisure time.     

''Person under train'' incidents from the subway driver''s point of view--a prospective 1-year follow-up study: the design, and medical and psychiatric data

Patients often have hypertension after successful kidney transplantation. In the long term, this hypertension adds to patient mortality and morbidity. The widespread use of cyclosporine appears to have changed the nature of posttransplantation hypertension. In humans, cyclosporine-associated hypertension seems to involve sodium retention and stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.     

Interview reliability for assessing mental work demands.

This study presented and evaluated an interview method for the analysis of tasks included in a work situation. What mental demands and possibilities do the work tasks give rise to? When was the work more or less automatic? When was use of active knowledge required? When were problem solving and planning needed? The study included an assessment of the interobserver reliability of the interviews with employees from 5 different careers: bus drivers (n?=?10), home service workers (n?=?32), carpenters (n?=?11), farmers (n?=?14), and teachers (n?=?26). The extent to which this method can be reproduced in studies of different occupations is discussed. The interobserver reliability was good (.75–.82). There is support for the stability and usefulness of the interview for most types of work concerning the 3 categories of mental demands: routine, active knowledge, and problem solving/creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Current issues relating to psychosocial job strain and cardiovascular disease research": Correction to Theorell and Karasek (1996).

Reports an error in "Current issues relating to psychosocial job strain and cardiovascular disease research" by T?res Theorell and Robert A. Karasek (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1996[Jan], Vol 1[1], 9-26). On p. 12, in the caption to Figure 2, the copyright statement is missing. The caption should have read "The environment, the worker, and illness: Dynamic associations linking environmental strain and learning to evolution of personality. From Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life (p. 99), by R. A. Karasek and T. Theorell, 1990, New York: Basic Books. Copyright 1990 by Basic Books. Used with permission." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1996-04477-002.) Examines recent reviews of cardiovascular (CV) job strain (JS) research by P. L. Schnall and P. A. Landsbergis (1994) and T. S. Kristensen (see record 1995-39109-001), which conclude that JS as defined by the demand-control model (the combination of contributions of low job decision latitudes and high psychological job demands) is confirmed as a risk factor for CV mortality in a large majority of studies. Lack of social support at work appears to increase this risk. Several still-unresolved issues are discussed in light of recent research. Methodological issues related to the use of occupational & career aggregate estimates, use of standard scales for job analysis, and recall bias in issues of self-reporting are examined. Confounding factors and differential strengths of associations by subgroups in JS-CV disease analyses with respect to social class, gender, and working hours are addressed. A review of results of monitoring JS-blood pressure associations and associated methodological issues is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are Trends in Work and Health Conditions Interrelated? A Study of Swedish Hospital Employees in the 1990s.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 14(1) of Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (see record 2008-19186-009). This particular study was based upon a unique database (the Springlife database), with repeated questionnaire self-reports from hospital staff in the ?rebro Regional Hospital in Sweden regarding work environment and mental health in the years 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2001. The Springlife database was referred to in the text and references of the article noted above, but it should have been more clearly acknowledged. Herewith the authors want to make this late acknowledgement. The database actually started in the fall of 1993 with the regional hospital's physicians and continued with all hospital staff during the spring 1994.] Swedish hospital personnel were followed over an 8-year period, characterized by staff redundancies and restructuring processes. Self-rated and administrative data sets from 1994 to 2001 allowed for studying long-term consequences of organizational instability for staff health and work conditions. The aim was to identify, on a work-unit level, trends in work and health conditions and their interdependence. Regression analysis showed a downward trend in mental health and an upward trend in long-term sick leave. Increasing trends of work demands were accompanied by deteriorating mental health, and decreasing time to plan work showed the strongest association with increasing long-term sick leave. Job satisfaction and support were decreasing. A stable short-term sick leave rate over years related to lack of support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychophysiology of flow during piano playing.

Expert performance is commonly accompanied by a subjective state of optimal experience called flow. Previous research has shown positive correlations between flow and quality of performance and suggests that flow may function as a reward signal that promotes practice. Here, piano playing was used as a flow-inducing behavior in order to analyze the relationship between subjective flow reports and psychophysiological measures. Professional classical pianists were asked to play a musical piece and then rate state flow. The performance was repeated five times in order to induce a variation in flow, keeping other factors constant, while recording the arterial pulse pressure waveform, respiration, head movements, and activity from the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major facial muscles. A significant relation was found between flow and heart period, blood pressure, heart rate variability, activity of the zygomaticus major muscle, and respiratory depth. These findings are discussed in relation to current models of emotion, attention, and expertise, and flow is proposed to be a state of effortless attention, which arises through an interaction between positive affect and high attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with anger-provoking situations, psychosocial working conditions, and ECG-detected signs of coronary heart disease.

This study explored the association among coping, psychosocial work factors, and signs of coronary heart disease (CHD) among prison staff (777 men, 345 women). Electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings at rest, health examinations, and a questionnaire were used. A high level of covert coping in men and a low level of open coping in women showed the strongest association with signs of CHD. Among several traditional biological and lifestyle risk factors, only age and systolic blood pressure in men and none in the case of women were significantly associated with CHD signs in the final multivariate regression analyses. A coping style of repressed emotions and actions in anger-provoking situations, independent of traditional risk factors, seems to be associated with a prevalence of ECG signs in male and female prison staff. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job characteristics and the incidence of myocardial infarction

In Sweden, there are large differences in the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) among occupational groups. These differences may to some extent be due to work environment factors, including psychosocial job strain. The aim of the present study was to estimate the relative risk (RR) of MI for Swedish men and women in high strain occupations as compared to those in low strain occupations. The association between job strain and MI was studied by case-control methods. The study base comprised the population of four Swedish counties from 1976-1981 and of Stockholm county from 1976-1984. Incident cases of MI were identified through hospital discharges together with deaths. Information about occupation was obtained from the 1970 and the 1975 censuses and individuals were characterized with regard to job strain on the basis of their job title. In all, 9295 cases and 26 101 controls with unchanged type of occupation from 1970 to 1975 were included in the analyses. Men and women aged < 65 in high strain occupations showed an RR of 1.1-1.4, and men age < 55 an RR of 1.2-1.6 compared to those in low strain occupations. Similar results were obtained in analyses of male white and blue collar workers respectively. If the association between job strain and MI is causal this could be of great importance in explaining differences in MI incidence among occupational groups in Sweden.