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Biomedical subjects

D C Turk

Publications and source records attributed to D C Turk.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Latent structure of strategies used to cope with nociceptive stimulation.

A substantial number of recent investigations have focused upon the role of psychological factors (such as coping strategies) in mediating the experience of pain. One goal of this research has been to identify strategies that are particularly effective or ineffective in enabling persons to tolerate nociceptive stimulation. Although research in this direction appears promising, the field has lacked an adequate means for quantitatively comparing and contrasting strategies that persons actually use. The current studies were undertaken to describe empirically the latent dimensions along which subjects perceive coping strategies used by persons experiencing the cold pressor test to differ and to demonstrate a methodology using multidimensional scaling for developing empirically based classificatory schemes of strategies for coping with other forms of pain.

Cognition↗
PubMed1984

Health protection: attitudes and behaviors of LPNs, teachers, and college students.

Three groups of subjects, college students, high school teachers, and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), were asked to rate 30 health-protective activities in terms of (a) importance (attitude) and (b) the frequency with which they performed them (behavior). Correlational analyses revealed reasonably high consistency between attitudes and behaviors in all three groups. Multidimensional scaling procedures identified two basic dimensions of Health-Protective Behaviors (HPBs) accounting for 57% of the variance. The two dimensions were (a) degree of effectiveness and (b) amount of effort. Although students emphasized effectiveness in rating HPBs and teachers used both dimensions equally, the LPNs tended to consider only amount of effort. Additional analyses indicated that group differences were not related to age or gender but rather to health orientation. In sum, individuals' attitudes and behaviors related to health protection are stable, simply organized, and relatively consistent, but samples of health care providers (LPNs) and lay people (students and teachers) differentially weight the importance of effort and effectiveness when considering HPBs. The implications of these results for patient-provider communication, treatment adherence, as well as an understanding of health behavior are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Psychosocial adjustment following ostomy.

Ostomy patients have been identified as a chronic illness population frequently experiencing adjustment difficulties. The present study, based on the biopsychosocial model (Engel, 1977) of chronic illness, examined a range of post-surgical adjustment difficulties in a sample of 131 ostomy patients. The patient population reported experiencing a significant number of technical, emotional, social, marital/family, and sexual difficulties post-surgically. Technical difficulties were associated with impaired emotional, social, and marital/family functioning. Emotional difficulties were also associated with problematic social, marital/family adjustment, and impaired sexual functioning. Technical problems, emotional difficulties, and social problems were all associated with the patient's perception of having received inadequate preparatory information. Marital/family and sexual maladjustment, on the other hand, were associated with low levels of perceived social support. The results of this investigation are interpreted as supporting the biopsychosocial model of chronic illness, and the clinical implications of these findings are discussed as well as their relation to previous research on adjustment to stressful medical procedures.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

"Chronic pain as a variant of depressive disease". A critical reappraisal.

This paper critically examines the hypothesis that chronic pain is the physical manifestation of an underlying depressive disorder, as proposed by Blumer and Heilbronn in 1982 ( Blumer , D., and Heilbronn , M. Chronic pain as a variant of depressive disease. The pain-prone disorder. J. Nerv . Ment . Dis., 170: 381-406, 1982). The logic of this argument and the empirical evidence provided by Blumer and Heilbronn to support their hypothesis are discussed and their validity challenged. Alternative interpretations for the results as well as for the relationship between pain and depression are noted. Although it may be plausible to view a small subset of chronic pain patients as manifesting a " muted depressive state," the burden of proof still lies with those theorists who adhere to this formulation.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗
PubMed1980

A sequential criterion analysis for assessing coping with chronic illness.

A three-stage sequential criterion analysis based on the Goldfried-D'Zurilla behavior model is presented as a heuristic approach for studying chronic illness. The three interrelated stages consist of: (a) problem identification, (b) response enumeration, and (c) response evaluation. The utility of this systematic approach for understanding the adaptive process, helping to identify patients who might benefit from intervention, providing content for actual intervention, and reducing the myth of homogeneity among chronic patient populations for both clinicians and researches, is discussed. Examples of the utility of the criterion analysis are provided throughout the paper.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

Frequencies of pneumococcal types causing serious infections in patients admitted to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, 1969-77.

During a 7 1/2 year period pneumococci were isolated from body fluids of 124 patients at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford -72 with pneumonia, 26 with meningitis and 26 with other serious infections. Eighty-one (65%) of the patients were over 50, and 33 (27%) were over 70 years old. Of the 124 pneumococcal strains 104 (84%), including 23 (79%) of those from patients who died, belonged to types included in the vaccines successfully used in South Africa and in Papua New Guinea. The relative frequencies of types in the Oxford series and in a larger British series agreed closely with those found in a recent survey of 3644 bacteraemic pneumococcal infections in 10 American cities. Any polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine licensed for use in the United States is thus likely to be relevant to the situation in Britain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

A comparison of chloramphenicol and ampicillin as bactericidal agents for Haemophilus influenzae type B.

In tests of bactericidal action against H. influenzae type b strains isolated from patients with meningitis, chloramphenicol was found to be far more reliable than ampicillin in dealing with large inocula, and more rapidly effective against both large and relatively small inocula. These findings provide a laboratory explanation for the somewhat better record of chloramphenicol as an agent for treatment of haemophilus meningitis.

Amoxicillin↗
PubMed1975

An investigation of the family background of acute Haemophilus infections of children.

Nose and throat swabs, for culture of Haemophilus influenza type b, and blood samples, for measurement of antibodies specific for that serotype, were collected from members of 28 families from which children had been admitted to hospital with acute H. influenzae type b infections (mainly meningitis or epiglottitis). The patients with meningitis were younger than those with epiglottitis and had more siblings, with a marked predominance of sisters. Investigations within a few days of admission of the affected children to hospital detected carriers of H. influenzae type b (19 altogether) in 13 of the 28 families, including 9 of the 13 families with 3 or more children. Members with raised antibody titres for H. influenzae type b (suggesting the presence of the organism for at least a few weeks) were found in 17 of the 25 families from which blood samples were obtained, including all 11 families with 3 or more children. Most of the patients probably acquired their infections from within their own families, and siblings under 11 years old were of predominant importance both as carriers and as potential sources of the patients' infections. Persistence of the organism within families for up to 6 months was demonstrated. Possible reasons for the difference in age-incidence between haemophilus meningitis and epiglottitis and for the occurrence of the former in babies with older sisters are suggested, and also a possible connection between the results of this survey and the likely value of immunization against H. influenzae type b.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗