Impact of life events on patient well being Flashcards
Definition of life event
Major happenings that can occur in a person’s life that require spe degree of psychological readjustment.
Main sources of life events stressors
-Individual
-Family
-Society
Explain and give examples of individual source of stressors
Illness, conflict, personal relationships, lack of control.
Describe the possible internal conflicts
Can be:
+Approach-approach: patient make choice between 2 positive options.
+Approach-avoidance: patient had to make a choice between something positive and something negative.
+Avoidance-avoidance: patient has to make choice between two negative options. Example choose between chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer treatment.
Internal conflicts can cause anxiety, depression, headaches, nausea, etc.
Explain and give examples of family source of stressors
-Divorce, marriage, death of family member, birth of baby. disability.
-Caring for someone with chronic illness can increase financial burden, depression, anxiety, sadness, stress
Explain and give examples of society source of stressors
Job, social environment, workload, relationships with coworker, deadlines, etc.
What systems do life events impact on?
+ Physiological system- Leads to a Fight or Flight response due to activation of SNS and adrenaline.
+Psychological system- affects cognitive functioning like memory, attention, emotions. Can cause, fear, excitement, depression, anger…
+Social aspect- Involves social behaviour, socio-cultural differences, gender…
How can we measure stress?
- Self report: Interview, questionnaire, rating scales
- Physiological: galvanic skin response( electrical conductance of skin), changes in BP and HR, biochemical markers like cortisol levels.
Characteristics of SRRS(Social Re-adjustment Rating Score
-Based on adjustment required for various life events
-Scale of 0-100
-Time period: last 12 months
-Total stress score: values of all life events added.
What are the levels of stress according to the total stress score?
Low- Less than 149
Mild- 150 to 200
Moderate- 200 to 299
Major- more than 300
Advantages of SRRS
-Wide range of events
-Easy and quick
- Useful to assess stress and illness
-Positive correlation between life events and illness.
Disadvantages of SRRS
-Some items are very vague or ambiguous as it depends on severity of item
-Doesn’t consider impact of event on patient: can be positive or negative.
- Failure to distinguish between desirable and undesirable( undesirable events correlated with illness)
-Can be inaccurate as patient must remember how they felt during the life event- retrospective approach.
-Causality- did the illness cause the life event or viceversa?
Examples of other life events scales
LES- 57 events
PERI- 102 events
UES- 320 events ( most precise)
(SRRS has 43 events)
Limitations of physiological measures
- Measure might induce stress
-influenced by other factors aside from just stress
-expensive, time-consuming
High stress can increase risk of what illnesses?
-High BP
-breast cancer
- depression
-burnout
-heart disease
-immune function
Results from Life events and breast cancer study
-High lifetime change and several life events increase risk of breast cancer.
-Health care actions can be aimed to early detection and prevention of breast cancer.
Results from life events and immune function study
Several life events increase risk of multiple sclerosis by up to 30 %
Results from life event and asthma
Risk of asthma attacks increase with negative life events, but is also magnified when patient experiences multiple chronic stressors.
Definition of hassle
Minor stressors that occur regularly.
Accumulation of hassles can impact health
Describe the Hassles scale
Includes daily unpleasant/ harmful events.
- It is associated with health status
- Strong predictor of psychological and physical well being.
Describe Uplifts scale
Includes positive events that bring peace and satisfaction.
-Has little association with health status.
Name and describe the 2 different types of stress according to Selye
Distress- harmful and damaging (neg. effects)
Eustress- beneficial and constructive (pos. effects)
Quality of functioning and stress
-Very low and very high levels linked to low levels of performance.
-Moderate level of stress leads to maximum level of performance.
