This bundle contains all the articles that are included in the course "Medical Psychology" given at the University of Amsterdam. It contains the following articles:
Psychological factors are important in many aspects of physical and mental health. There are six definitions of health:
The definition that is used determines who
........Read moreTo provide good healthcare, it is essential to understand symptoms. Symptoms are very common and ambiguous. They are influenced by psychological factors.
A symptom refers to any variation in physiological or emotional state that is interpreted as unusual and labelled as potentially harmful. Appraisal and interpretation are central. However, people are not good at interpreting their
........Read moreSymptoms are the patient’s subjective experience of changes in one’s body. Diseases are objectively observable abnormalities in the body. Medically unexplained or functional symptoms are symptoms for which no biological basis can be found. It is possible that the differentiation between specific functional syndromes reflects the specialist’s tendency to focus on symptoms relevant to their speciality.
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The central nervous system (CNS), endocrine system and the immune system interact with each other. Stressors can dysregulate the immune response by affecting the interplay of these systems. Stressors are often categorized by duration and course (i.e. discrete vs. continuous). Stressors that are perceived as unpredictable or uncontrollable may continue to be associated with increased levels of stress
........Read moreAllostatic load refers to the long-term effect of the physiological response to stress. Allostasis refers to the ability to achieve stability through change. The nervous system, the HPA axis, the immune system and other systems protect the body through allostasis.
The effects of chronic stress can be exacerbated by a rich diet (1), the use of
........Read moreMajor depressive disorder increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This impact can partially be explained by mediating mechanisms (e.g. unhealthy lifestyle and unfavourable pathophysiological disturbances).
Cardiovascular disease refers to those conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. Depressed individuals are at increased risk for peripheral atherosclerosis. Depression increases the risk for the onset
........Read moreA lot of personality constructs have been used as predictors of health which poses challenges for the interpretation and integration of findings. The measures often have poor psychometric properties. This problem can be addressed by using the five factor model of personality (FFM). This includes measurements that have been assessed for their psychometric properties. FFM helps assess which
........Read moreStress occurs when demands are appraised as exceeding a person’s resources to cope. Stressors are external and internal events that may trigger a stress response. Stressors can be external or internal (1), can be acute or chronic (2) and can be traumatic or role strain (3). Stress responses are the various ways people respond to a stressor. Responses
........Read moreSevere fatigue occurs in one in four breast cancer survivors. Quality of life and psychological factors are important in fatigue-oriented interventions. There is a relationship between fatigue and depressive symptoms, anxiety, distress, sleep disturbances, lower physical activity levels, pain, difficulties coping with cancer and catastrophizing about symptoms.
Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer
........Read moreCancer-related fatigue refers to a distressing, persistent, subjective sense of physical, emotional and cognitive tiredness related to cancer or cancer treatment that is not proportional to recent activity and interferes with usual functioning. Fatigue may be elevated before treatment onset and typically increases over the course of treatment. 20% of cancer survivors report persistent fatigue after treatment.
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People respond rapidly with sympathetic nervous system activation coupled with upregulation of the HPA-axis which results in increased release of the glucocorticoid cortisol from the adrenal cortex when faced with a threat. The corticotropin-releasing hormone, which is released from the hypothalamus in response to stress, activates the HPA-axis and stimulates the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary
........Read moreMyocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death can be triggered by emotional distress. The vulnerability for these diseases is determined by the presence of coronary artery disease or structural myocardial damage. The gradual progress of cardiovascular disease can be influenced by psychiatric, psychological and social conditions.
There are three phases of progression of cardiovascular disease:
The way in which care providers and patients talk with one another influences an array of post-consultation outcomes (e.g. adherence to treatment). Provider-centric bias refers to the fact that the health-care provider is treated as the communicator of primary importance. However, the patient-centred approach may be more useful.
Participation refers to action, involvement and influence within the
........Read moreGood communication is essential for diagnosis and the establishment of a treatment plan. Research into medical communication is flawed at the moment due to uncertainty about how to interpret contradictory results (1), no explicit long-term or short-term effects (2) and no differentiation between the elements of communication (3).
Bird’s model of medical communication states that a medical
........Read moreShared decision making (SDM) is a model to engage patients in the process of deciding about diagnosis, treatment or follow-up when more than one medically reasonable option is available. It hasn’t been fully implemented in clinical practice yet.
The shared decision making model arises from the themes beneficence (1), non-maleficence (2), patient autonomy (3) and justice (4).
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