Distrust, rage may be 'toxic core' that puts 'type A' person at risk
Article Abstract:
A group of personality traits were identified in reports done in the late 1950s and again in the early 1980s which linked a group of personality traits to increased risks of coronary heart disease (and resulting heart attacks). These traits were organized into two profiles which led to the definition of Type A and Type B personalities. The type A individuals were seen as aggressive and constantly pushed by time to achieve, while the Type B individuals were more relaxed in their style of behavior. Now several studies have shown that Type A individuals survive longer following heart attack than do the milder Type B personalities. Studies have also shown that other factors, such as smoking, to be better predictors of heart attacks than the personality type. Other work assessing psychological risk factors have identified increased risk of coronary heart disease with hostile personalities. Three aspects of the heart attack-prone personality have been identified: mistrusting nature, harboring feelings of anger, and aggressive expression of hostility. In these studies, the death rate among a group of 118 attorneys was compared to their scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory which they had taken 25 years before, while still students. Lawyers who rated in the upper 25 percent of the index for hostility were 4.2 times more likely to die than their lower scoring classmates. Respondents whose scores indicated strong tendencies toward mistrust, anger, and aggression were 5.5 times more likely to die than those without such feelings. Another group of studies has explored the physiological base for these findings and suggests that these psychological issues drive the autonomic nervous system to produce and release hormones that could be responsible.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Useful advice to patient whose spouse has died: 'establish a routine, mingle with other people'
Article Abstract:
A study of recently widowed individuals has suggested a strong role for a "social timekeeper" in maintaining a personal psychiatric equilibrium following the loss of a spouse. The theory, known as the timekeeper theory, or "social zeitgeber", states that for certain susceptible individuals, the loss of external clues having to do with the day-to-day routine (e.g., due to the loss of a spouse) could lead to irregularities of brain hormone secretion that are associated with clinical depression. A study of 134 persons who had lost their spouses showed that 35 percent of the participants had signs of depression soon after their loss, and that for 12 percent, signs of major depression remained a year later. The study also examined changes in routine and schedule, and from the elements of this profile, the investigators could predict with 65 percent accuracy those individuals who would have continuing problems with depression. In contrast to earlier studies, the current data suggests that men are generally less prone to depression, and that following the loss of a spouse, many remain anchored to their work and personal schedules. Women were often less able to establish their own schedules after the loss of their spouse, and would therefore suffer more from the biologic effects of changes. The best advice that physicians should give to those recently widowed is to establish a schedule and mingle with others.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Forensics experts tackle task of identifying thousands of 'disappeared' victims
Article Abstract:
Practicioners of forensic medicine are being called upon to identify victims killed during the period in Argentina following the ouster of Juan Peron. It is estimated that as many as 20,000 individuals were assassinated by the Argentine regime. A governmental plan, now acknowledged as grandiose, was to exhume and identify the dead that have been found in mass graves, referred to collectively as the 'disappeared.' Once the emormity of the job was understood, the strategy changed to positively identifying at least one person who can be connected with each person who is to be brought to trial. New state-of-the-art scientific methods are being used to help identify victims, including the use of mitochondrial DNA samples. This technique relies on the use of the phlymerase chain reaction which involves the creation of primers that bind to both ends of a piece of DNA that is being sought. The samples, taken from a victim's brain, are heated to help separate double-stranded DNA and a DNA polymerase begins to replicate the selected segment by pairing the equence to a complementary strand of nucleotides.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1989
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Estrogen increases inducible nitric oxide synthase gene expression. Evaluation of leukemia inhibitory factor as a marker of ectopic pregnancy
- Abstracts: Scientists stumped by test that promises tailored treatment
- Abstracts: Harmful genital care practices in children: a type of child abuse. Newborns killed or left to die by a parent: a population-based study
- Abstracts: Laron dwarfism and mutations of the growth-hormone receptor gene. A child-with phenotypic Laron dwarfism and normal somatomedin levels
- Abstracts: Left ventricular thrombi and cerebral embolism. Coronary thrombolysis - a perspective for the practicing physician