Psychosocial Factors

Until the discovery of HP, psychological stress was considered one of the primary causes of PUD. Although psychosocial factors such as life stress, baseline personality patterns, and depression may influence PUD prevalence, a clear causal relationship has not been demonstrated. 

Mirsky AF and Duncan CC (1986). Etiology and expression of schizophrenia Neurobiological and psychosocial factors. Annual Review of Psychology, 37, 291-319. 

The term alcoholism as a disease entity was coined by the Swedish physician, Magnus Huss, in the mid-19th century to describe the harmful physical and mental effects of chronic excessive alcohol consumption. This strictly medical model held sway for almost a century before it became apparent that a variety of psychosocial factors also influence the onset and course of the disorder. Indeed, drinking behavior and the problems attributable to excessive drinking, including alcoholism, vary widely within and across different cultures and population groups, and even within the same person across the fife span. In the last 30 years, basic and... 

Beyond using measures that assess patterns and consequences of drug use, therapists and counselors may want to consider assessing other psychosocial factors that have been shown to be important in predicting successful (or unsuccessful) therapy and treatment outcomes (as discussed in Chapter 1). There are well-established measures for measuring psychosocial factors such as expectancies, mood and emotions, self-efficacy, the ability to problem solve and use... 

There is suggestive but inconclusive evidence of adverse cardiovascular effects in humans exposed to relatively high concentrations of CDDs. ° Increased deaths from chronic heart disease were observed in the Seveso cohort, but psychosocial factors could not be ruled out. No clear dose-response relationships were seen among the Ranch Hand cohort. Increased deaths from heart and circulatory disease were reported among German workers exposed to CDDs. No evidence of adverse cardiovascular effects was observed in US workers. 

This team must be skilled in handling the complex origin of disability. Risk factors for the disease to become chronic are often of a psychosocial and not a physical nature. Primary targets of treatment should be physical fitness and the self-management of problems by the patient. Awareness of the psychosocial factors, which can disturb occupational reintegration, should be developed. Rehabilitation is based on measures to modify patient s beliefs and fitness. The prescribed treatment should aim to relieve pain, correct disability, prevent relapses, inform and educate the patient. 

Generally, the clinical and the psychosocial factors that combine to increase the risk of suicide have a high sensitivity but a low specificity. Because only a small minority who meet these criteria successfully complete suicide, the clinician s task of accurately assessing risks is exceedingly difficult. 

These results affirm the important impact of psychosocial factors on the course of a presumed biologically based but multifactorial disorder in which a variety of forces may play a role. Indeed, stressful life events may even alter the biology of a mood disorder. Clinically, they imply that careful attention to and reduction of stressful life events may help to attenuate or prevent subsequent episodes. 

Kosslyn, S., Quick assessment of basic cognitive function blood pressure cuffs for the mind. Technical Summary of Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors Team Project, National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Houston, TX, 2002. 

Horsten et al. examined the inverse relationship between cholesterol levels and death from violent causes, including suicide, in a group of 300 middle-aged healthy Swedish women [100]. The authors also investigated the association between cholesterol and other psychosocial factors (social support, vital exhaustion, and stressful life events), which are known to be related to depression. The results showed that women with low serum cholesterol, defined as the lowest tenth of the cholesterol distribution (<4.7 mmol/L or 180 mg/dL), reported significantly more depressive... 

Miller, J. J. (1993). Psychosocial factors related to rheumatic disease in childhood. J. Rheumatol. 20 S38,1-11. 

Turk, D. C., Flor, H. (1999). Chronic pain A biobehavioral perspective. In R. J. Gatchel D. C. Turk (Eds.), Psychosocial factors in pain Critical perspectives (pp. 18-34). New York Guilford Press. 

From this point of already immense complexity, we have now to jump to another dimension of the risk perception by the population the psychosocial factors of perception and, what we may call the nebulous risk as opposed to sudden and gradual risks. I mean those risks that the population cannot... 

The decision to terminate a meal is influenced by the interplay of a number of physiological and psychosocial factors. These include the somatically determined signals of satiety (see Chapter 1), the variety and palatability of the food being presented (see above), cognitive attitudes towards food, and social circumstances. 

In 1988, more than half of approximately 200 employees working with composite plastic materials in one building of an aircraft manufacturing company reported CNS, respiratory, heart, and gastrointestinal symptoms. The employee response was dubbed aerospace syndrome. Sampling of the air in that building showed the presence of phenol (1.46), formaldehyde (0.35), styrene (2.95), methylene chloride (1.25), methanol (0.77), C9-C12 alkanes and aromatics (3.0-4.0), particulates, and epoxy resins, all at concentrations well below their TLVsJ51 The author of the study concluded that, like the employees exposed to irradiated mail, the aerospace workers responded to psychosocial factors in the workplace. 

Many factors are involved in the control of food intake. Some of the most important factors controlling the amount of food that we eat include environmental factors such as food availability, the characteristics of the food itself (e.g., smell, taste, our eating habits, learned preferences and aversions) as well as other psychological and social factors, including our lifestyle. Although these psychosocial factors are extremely important to the food intake patterns of humans, this section will concentrate on the physiological factors, primarily the role of fat in food intake. 

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