BACKGROUND: Many medical professionals share the opinion that the negative social attitudes toward transplantation are the basic cause of the deficit of organ from deceased donors. Although public opinion polls in Poland invariably reveal overall acceptance of transplantation, it is extremely difficult to procure organs. The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of supporters and opponents of organ transplantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In social psychology, attitude is defined as a relatively stable inclination toward a positive or negative relation to a person or an object. It was assumed that positive attitudes are favorable as regards transplantation, whereas negative attitudes constitute a social obstacle to this method of treatment. The survey conducted between May and August 2002 included a representative sample of 1000 Poles over 15 years of age. The first part of the survey measured the general attitude toward transplantation on a rating scale ranging from "definitely agree" to "definitely disagree." RESULTS: We distinguished two extreme attitudes, ie, supporters and opponents. CONCLUSIONS: The attitudes of supporters were mainly cognitive, whereas the attitudes of opponents were dominated by negative emotions associated with fear of death, psychological trauma, and physical injury which led to avoidance behavior, passive resistance, and selective and biased information processing. Opponents often concealed or belittled their standpoints and were reluctant to discuss transplantation issues. Their behavior was more passive, and their familiarity with the medical and legal aspects of transplantation was relatively poor compared with supporters.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Hereditary partial oculomotor paralysis in 2 members of a family].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[A sense of coherence and mental disorders].

Sense of coherence, a health-promoting life orientation, i.e. perceiving the world as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful, was compared in three groups: of healthy controls (37 males and 45 females), neurotic patients (31 males and 54 females), and hospitalized patients with depressive syndrome defined according to DSM-IV criteria (13 females). Two self-report questionnaires were used in the study: Antonovsky's SOC-29 scale measuring the sense of coherence, and SCL-90-R by Derogatis, measuring psychopathological symptoms intensity. As hypothesized, psychopathology level in the groups under study was significantly differentiated, being most marked in patients with depression. Sense of coherence and all its constituents turned out to be significantly lower in both clinical groups as compared to controls; the lowest SOC level was noted in depressive patients. Moreover, in the latter group, in contradistinction to the other two, significant correlations between sense of coherence (SOC) and general self-rated health (positive correlations), and between SOC and symptoms intensity (negative correlations) have disappeared. Due to the small size of the depressive group it was possible only to suggest a hypothesis explaining the findings, namely, that the SOC protective function disappears in persons situated far away from the "health" pole of the health-disease continuum.

Adolescent↗