Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

T Theorell

Publications and source records attributed to T Theorell.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

The impact on work ability of ileal conduit urinary diversion.

The purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent ileal conduit urinary diversion influenced patients' capacity to work. Sixty-sex urostomy patients were interviewed. Forty-seven of those were employed before surgery. Sixteen of 47 patients (34%) made permanent changes in their working conditions immediately after surgery, i.e. they did not resume work or they changed from full-time to part-time work. The working conditions changed in similar ways for another 15 patients who initially had been able to resume. Bladder cancer patients were more likely to work less than patients with incontinence/bladder dysfunction. Nineteen patients obtained disability pension either immediately after surgery or later. Eight of those considered stoma related problems, mainly leakage, as the main reason for inability to work. Diagnosis, gender, and type of work did not seem to affect the frequency of disability pension.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Family history of hypertension--an individual trait interacting with spontaneously occurring job stressors.

Family history of hypertension has been associated with enhanced blood pressure reactivity and a "noncomplaining" life attitude. The present empirical study supported the notion that enhanced blood pressure reactivity is associated with other endocrinologic hormonal reactivity patterns (plasma cortisol, prolactin, and testosterone) not directly related to blood pressure during increasing job strain (demands/decision latitude). Furthermore, it was found that noise effects on blood pressure rise at work occur mainly among people with a family history of hypertension. Interaction between stressors and individual characteristics seems important in the analysis of the health effects of job stressors, and "family history of hypertension" seems to be an important individual characteristic not only of blood pressure associations but also of other relationships between job environment and health.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Psychodrama group therapy for patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders--a controlled long-term follow-up study.

Patients with gastric dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome at a primary health care centre were offered a special form of group psychotherapy once a week during a 3-month period. The therapy included psychodrama and relaxation training. Results were evaluated by means of self-administered questionnaires on symptoms and anxiety, comparing pretherapy levels with levels 6 months after the start of the therapy as well as 3 years later. In the studied treatment group--as well as in a control group selected in the same way but not undergoing the special treatment--the symptom levels decreased 3 months after therapy. In both groups, however, they tended to increase again after 3 years. Anxiety, on the other hand, decreased 6 months after the start of therapy in the specially treated group and no similar tendency was observed in the control group. In the treatment group subjects who reported immediately after treatment that they had learned 'a new behaviour' were more likely to report fewer symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome 3 years later than other subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Combined effects of job strain and social isolation on cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in a random sample of the Swedish male working population.

This study examined the impact of psychosocial work organization on cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and the nine-year cumulative mortality incidence for a random sample of the male Swedish working population (N = 7219). A multiplicative measure was constructed to model the combined effects of psychological job demands, work-related social support and work control. Highly strained and isolated workers had a higher age-adjusted prevalence ratio for CVD morbidity and a higher age-adjusted risk ratio for CVD mortality when compared with those working under less strained and more collective conditions. Blue-collar workers showed the greatest risk for both morbidity and mortality when groups with highly isolated and strained conditions were compared to those in more collective and less strained conditions. Strained and isolated workers also had a substantially higher probability of developing and dying of CVD at a younger age than did those in less adverse environments.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Youth unemployment and ill health: results from a 2-year follow-up study.

A prospective study was started in 1981, including all 1083 pupils in the last year of compulsory school in a municipality in the northern part of Sweden. All pupils were followed up after 2 years. They were investigated with a comprehensive self-administered questionnaire as well as studies of records and interviews with teachers and school nurses. The total non-participation rate in the study was less than 1%. The main results of the study are the following: unemployment leads to increased psychosomatic and psychological symptoms, decreased social activities in clubs, increased abuse of alcohol and narcotics and increased utilization of health care services. The effects of unemployment are somewhat different among girls and among boys. Girls are more exposed to unemployment and unemployment also leads to more negative effects among them. Hidden unemployment has the same effects as unemployment but the effects are less pronounced.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Emotional coping and the psychophysiological substrates of elevated blood pressure.

A structured interview concerning emotional coping patterns was administered to 63 28-year-old men included in a psychophysiological study of blood pressure elevation. The interviews were tape recorded and subsequently evaluated by a rater not otherwise involved in the study. The interviews involved discussion of four emotions: anger, sorrow, anxiety, and joy. The results indicate that normotensives can express sorrow to significantly more people than hypertensives, and that their behavior in situations involving sorrow tends to be more instrumental than that of the group with labile pressure. Hypertensives also experienced significantly less joy than normotensives. In multiple regression analyses on physiological variables relevant for blood pressure elevation, the use of a somatic and unfocused way of describing sorrow was associated with significantly lower heart rate. The results show also that emotional coping explains a significant amount of the variance in three of the psychosocial functions involved in elevated blood pressure: ability to express anger at work, plus the social support variables of attachment and acquaintance.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

Elevation of glycosylated hemoglobin in a severe crisis situation--cancer in a close relative.

In the present study, 58 relatives of cancer patients (50 women and 8 men, mean age 53) who experienced the grief and tension induced by severe illness in the family were followed. The aim of the study was to examine possible associations between anxiety, depression, and mental exhaustion, on one hand, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlC) level and changes in HbAlC level on the other hand. The relatives were studied approximately once a month during part of the patient's period of illness. On each occasion their psychiatric state was evaluated by means of a standardized observation and interview technique. A blood sample in the nonfasting state was taken for HbAlC assay. The main finding is that a high level of anxiety during the course of a close relative's cancer illness is associated with increasing HbAlC levels (p less than .01).

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1988

Acute chest pain without obvious organic cause before the age of 40. Respiratory and circulatory response to mental stress.

Reactivity to mental stress and relaxation was studied in 63 consecutive patients below the age of 40 attending the emergency care unit because of chest pain without obvious organic cause. The results were compared with a control group (n = 32). Of the patients, 41% reported chest pain or oppression in the chest during mental stress compared to 10% of the control subjects (p less than 0.01). During relaxation the subjects in the female patient group reported significantly less ability to relax and had significantly higher respiration rate as compared to the female control group. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding heart rate, blood pressure or end-tidal PCO2 and there was no evidence of hyperventilation, neither during relaxation nor during mental stress. In combination with our earlier findings of high scores for "type A behaviour", "neuroticism", "vital exhaustion" and "stressful life events" these findings indicate that psychosomatic mechanisms may be of great importance for the development of chest pain in this group of patients.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1988

Job characteristics in relation to the prevalence of myocardial infarction in the US Health Examination Survey (HES) and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES).

Associations between psychosocial job characteristics and past myocardial infarction (MI) prevalence for employed males were tested with the Health Examination Survey (HES) 1960-61, N = 2,409, and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) 1971-75, N = 2,424. A new estimation method is used which imputes to census occupation codes, job characteristic information from national surveys of job characteristics (US Department of Labor, Quality of Employment Surveys). Controlling for age, we find that employed males with jobs which are simultaneously low in decision latitude and high in psychological work load (a multiplicative product term isolating 20 per cent of the population) have a higher prevalence of myocardial infarction in both data bases. In a logistic regression analysis, using job measures adjusted for demographic factors and controlling for age, race, education, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, smoking (HANES only), and physical exertion, we find a low decision latitude/high psychological demand multiplicative product term associated with MI in both data bases. Additional multiple logistic regressions show that low decision latitude is associated with increased prevalence of MI in both the HES and the HANES. Psychological workload and physical exertion are significant only in the HANES.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Social class and cardiovascular disease: the contribution of work.

Low social class has been identified as a risk factor for coronary heart disease in highly industrialized countries. The authors discuss the social class concept in relation to psychosocial working conditions. Most of those psychosocial work characteristics that are of relevance to cardiovascular risk, namely, skill discretion, authority over decisions, and social support at work, are unevenly distributed across social classes--the lower the social class, the fewer the resources for coping with psychosocial stressors. Furthermore, biomedical risk factors for cardiovascular illness are also unevenly distributed across social class and associated with psychosocial work characteristics. The main conclusion is that part of the association between social class and cardiovascular illness risk may be due to differences in psychosocial work conditions. The psychosocial work conditions may affect the risk through either neuroendocrine mechanisms or lifestyle. Excessive tobacco smoking, for instance, may be enforced by poor working conditions.

Coronary Disease↗
PubMed1988

Changes in job strain in relation to changes in physiological state. A longitudinal study.

A sample of 73 men and women aged 22-63 years and working in six different occupations (air traffic controllers, waiters, physicians, symphony orchestra musicians, baggage handlers, and airplane mechanics) participated in a longitudinal study four times during a year. The spontaneous variations in job strain (determined as the self-reported ratio between psychological demands and decision latitude) were substantial. The average difference between the occasion with the highest level of strain and the occasion with the lowest level was 25% of the total mean. Systolic blood pressure during workhours, as well as self-reported sleep disturbance, increased when demands increased in relation to decision latitude. Among men with a depressive tendency (according to a diary) morning plasma prolactin levels increased markedly with increasing job strain. Among subjects with a positive family history of hypertension the increase in systolic blood pressure at work was particularly pronounced, and among the men in this group a lower than expected level of morning cortisol was found measured during the period with the highest level of strain.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Acute chest pain without obvious organic cause before age 40--personality and recent life events.

Personality and life events were measured in 69 consecutive patients (36 men and 33 women) below age 40 attending the emergency care unit because of chest pain without obvious organic cause (91% participation rate). The results were compared with 32 randomly sampled healthy subjects matched with regard to age and sex (86% participation rate). The patient group had significantly higher scores for "neuroticism', 'Type A behaviour' and 'vital exhaustion'. Further more the patients had experienced significantly more life events, in particular uncontrollable ones, during the last year. We conclude that 'Type A behaviour', 'neuroticism', 'vital exhaustion' and critical recent life events are linked with emergency consultation for chest pain of non-cardiac origin. Possible explanations of the link between the psychological reaction and the chest pain are enhanced tension in the thoracic muscles producing chest pain and oesophageal disorders. This study stresses the importance of careful medical and psychosocial examination of each case of unexplained chest pain at the emergency care unit.

Acute Disease↗