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Biomedical subjects

R H Rahe

Publications and source records attributed to R H Rahe.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Type A behavior pattern and coping and defense.

The relationship of coping and defense to Type A behavior pattern (TABP), as measured by the Structured Interview and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), was investigated to understand the dynamics of TABP and psychological factors associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. It was hypothesized that global TABP and its component "speed and impatience" would be related to the use of defense mechanisms, while the TABP attribute "job involvement" would be related to high coping. The interview measure of global TABP was not related to coping and defense. For the JAS, "Job involvement" was related to high coping scores and low defense scores, "speed and impatience" was related to high defensiveness, and "hard driving" was related to low coping scores. One implication is that TABP may be associated with increased CHD risk only when combined with low coping skills and high defenses. The JAS findings imply that increased coronary risk may be associated with poor coping skills. Future studies should examine multifactorial interaction of personality variables that may contribute to CHD risk.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Simplified scaling for life change events.

A relative simple interval scaling method for adjustment to life change events was compared to the original, more difficult, proportinate scaling method. Ranking of life events by both methods was extremely similar. Evidence also was found that today Americans scale several minor life change events as requiring greater adjustment than that estimated for these events a decade earlier.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Life change events and mental illness: an overview.

The use of recent life change measurement in the lives of persons developing mental disorders parallels the measurement of risk factors by epidemiologists to understand disease distribution. Examples are given of these parallels, along with critical commentary on methodological issues in life changes research. The principal studies documenting the association of recent life change and depression, schizophrenia, and neurosis are reviewed. Recent life changes appear to be an important element in explaining illness onset. Future advances in the area of life change and illness await the development of reliable and valid measures of an individual's stress tolerance characteristics, such as social support systems, psychological defenses, coping capabilities, and illness behavior tendencies.

Depression↗
PubMed1979

Brief group therapy in myocardial infarction rehabilitation: three- to four-year follow-up of a controlled trial.

A trial of brief group therapy as part of a rehabilitation program for postmyocardial infarction (MI) patients was carried out. Forty-four patients surviving their first MI were randomly allocated to either group therapy or control group status and were followed over 4 years. An additional group of 17 patients were referred for post-MI group therapy sessions after the termination of the controlled experiment and were followed for 3 years. Patients who received group therapy had significantly less follow-up coronary morbidity and mortality, and returned to work at significant higher percentages than control patients. Although neither group therapy nor control group patients meaningfully altered conventional coronary risk factors, group therapy patients (in the controlled trial) successfully altered selected coronary-prone behaviors. Educational information regarding the physiological and psychological aspects of coronary heart disease, presented in the group therapy sessions, was forgotten over follow-up. It is concluded that the supportive aspects of the group therapy experience played the most important role in determining the rehabilitation advantages seen for treatment patients.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1978

Life change and illness studies: past history and future directions.

A selected review of life changes and illness studies is presented which illustrates both the diversity of samples that have been tests in these studies and the generally positive results which have been obtained. Although early (retrospective) work in this field led to simplistic explanations, later (prospective) studies have begun to document the several intervening variables which occur between subjects' recent life change experiences and their subsequent symptomatology and disease. A life change and illness model is presented to illustrate key intervening variables. The authors believe that future research in the field of life change and illness should concentrate on further delineations of these intervening variables--an effort necessitating active collaboration between social and medical scientists.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

Heritability of type A behavior.

Ninety-three pairs of monozygotic and 97 pairs of dizygotic middle-aged, American, male twins were studied to estimate the heritability of Type A behavior--a coronary heart disease-prone behavior pattern. Participants were given the interview assessment of Type A behavior. In addition, they completed four psychological test batteries: the Thurstone Temperament Schedule, the Jenkins Activity Survey, the California Psychological Inventory, and the Gough Adjective Check List. Type A behavior measured by interview was found to be nonheritable. Psychological test scales which significantly correlated with Type A behavior, however, generally had significant heritability estimates. Only the Adjective Check List scales, which significantly correlated with Type A, showed nonsignificant heritability estimates. Selected items from these Adjective Check List scales may provide a method for assessment of Type A behavior possibly free from genetic influence.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Psychiatric consultation in a Vietnamese refugee camp.

The authors provided psychiatric consultation to medical personnel in charge of a Vietnamese refugee camp in California. Although the emergency measures that supplied clothing, food, shelter, and medical care to nearly 60,000 refugees were immensely successful, consultation was requested to assist with selected mental health problems. The recommendations of the consulting team were related to the stage of camp development: early recommendations concerned easing adaptation to the camp setting; later efforts included creating a psychiatric crisis clinic and carrying out a mental health survey on a random sample of refugees. The results of this survey helped camp directors to understand how refugees responded to the camp experience.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1976

Heritability of personality and behavior pattern.

As part of the National Heart and Lung Institute multicenter study of twins, 190 twin pairs (93 MZ, 97 DZ) residing in California and aged 44-55 years were comprehensively studied for all risk factors for coronary heart disease and for Behavior Pattern Type A or B. Psychological tests included MMPI, CPI, 16 Cattell PF, Gough Adjective Check List (ACL), Thurstone Temperament Schedule (TTS). Heritability at statistically significant levels was found only for scales of TTS. Twelve scales of ACL and five scales of TTS showed significant correlations with Behavior Pattern Type A-B as well as with several risk factors, including blood pressure and serum lipids. Multiple regression equations were constructed for those characteristics accounting for significant and unique portions of the total variance of Type A-B Behavior. The use of certain scales of ACL and TTS may provide a new questionnaire for screening purposes in the assessment of Behavior Pattern Type A-B.

Behavior↗
PubMed1976

Attitudes and accidents aboard an aircraft carrier.

A 22-item questionnaire, developed to measure various behavioral attitudes reportedly associated with accidents, was given to 879 enlisted air wing support personnel and 156 aviators on an aircraft carrier at the start of deployment. A factor analysis of these 22 items indicated six underlying concepts for which scales were created. Personnel injuries for the air wing and aircraft accidents for the aviators were recorded for the duration of the cruise, and correlations of these criteria with the 22 items and six scales were computed. Three items significantly predicted accidents in both populations and all three appeared in the same factor. The Adventurous scale developed from this factor was significantly (p less than or equal to 0.01) correlated with accidents in both groups. This scale appears to measure attitudes toward risk taking, which was the only concept found useful for the prediction of future accidents in this study.

Accidents, Aviation↗