Symptom Perception Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What are symptoms?

A

any variation in a physiological or emotional state that is interpreted as unusual or harmful.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is the biomedical model?

A

Biomedical model: assumes a one-to-one ratio between physiological change and symptom reports.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Why is there sometimes a discrepancy between symptom reports?

A

Symptom reports do not correlate with objective tests or markers (Pennebaker, 1984).
Psychological factors can account for the nonlinear relationship.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What influences our symptom perception?

A

Attention
* The degree of attention we pay to our internal bodily states influences our symptom perception.
* We have to process multiple external and internal sensory inputs. Our attentional capacity is limited (e.g. sensory store).

Competition of cues - recognising changes in our internal states relative to competing cues in our environment.

Emotions
Consistant Relationship of negative emotions and symptom reporting, Negative Emotions include:
* Depression
* Anxiety
* Negative affect (distress)
Also
When feel threatened/anxious we are alerted to threats to our health (hypervigilant)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

How is attention capacity a factor in reporting symptoms?

A

Unstimulating environments= less competition placed on our limited attentional capacity = more likely to detect changes in our internal states.

  • Unemployed report more symptoms than employed (Pennebaker, 2012).
  • People living alone report more symptoms than those cohabitating (Pennebaker, 2012).
  • Music as a distraction in exercise (Silva 2016)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What are schemas and how are they influenced?
What are schemas about?

A

Schemas are structures in our long-term memory that allow us to store information into meaningful categories.
Schemas are influenced by past learning and new assimilated knowledge.

People will have sets of beliefs, or schemas, about:
- which illnesses they are vulnerable to
- which symptoms indicate potential illness
- which illnesses compromise a threat to their overall health

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

How are illness Schemas developed?

A

The development of illness schemas (Leventhal, 1980):
* Prior illness experience
* Interactions with peers & media
* Interactions with medical professionals

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are the five domains of illness schemas?

A
  1. Identity - Symptoms associated with a specific illness are given a label (e.g. rash = meningitis?)
  2. Cause - Understanding of aetiology (e.g. contact with virus?)
  3. Timeline - Expected duration (e.g. 1-2 weeks?)
  4. Consequences - Impact of symptoms (e.g. cannot go into work, pain)
  5. Cure and Control - Steps needed to manage symptoms (e.g. see Doctor)
    ILLNESS PERCEPTION
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is the attribution schema symmetry rule?

A

DECTECTION OF SYMPTOMS causes IllNESS LABELS which causes detection of symptoms
Cycle

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

How did emotions correlate with reliever use in asthmatics

A

Reliever use was unrelated to peak flow (measure of lung function)
Symptoms associated with anxiety were attributed to asthma by a third of patients
Daily levels of distress were positively related to number of uses of reliever
High distress was related to tendency to label a wide range of symptoms as signs of asthma.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What are the reasons for delays in help seeking?

A

1) Appraisal Delay – Am I ill?
Time taken to attribute a symptom to an illness

2) Illness Delay – Do I need medical attention?
Time taken to reach a decision about whether treatment is needed.

3) Utilisation Delay – I’m going to get treatment.
Time taken between symptom detection and presenting to a health care service

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is the appraisal delay influenced by?

A

Influenced by:
* Attention
E.g. do not perceive symptom/ interpret as nonthreatening

  • Misattribution
    Symptoms interpreted incorrectly
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is the Illness and Utilisation delay influenced by?

A

Factors influencing illness delay:
Use of heuristics: age/menopause/stress
“ E.g. I’m just getting old.”

Factors influencing utilisation delay
Dispositional factors
Social pressure
No clear action plan/implementation intention
Fear-Avoidance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Why dont patient’s go in for treatment after recognition of symptoms?

A
  • Recognition & interpretation of symptoms Vague / mild symptoms, Belief will go away, No awareness of cancer symptoms / risk
  • Fear of ‘embarrassment’ Considered a time-waster or neurotic, Beliefs about help-seeking, Sensitive / sexual area
  • Fear of ‘cancer’, Serious & painful symptoms, fatal, incurable, Previous negative experience, Unpleasant treatment or side effects
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What is the relationship of symptoms and psychological factors to delay in seeking medical care for breast symptoms?

A

Demographics NOT related to patient delay.

No significant association between delay time and fear of cancer treatment.

Breast lump ~ SHORTER patient delay.

Higher levels of emotional response ~ SHORTER delay.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

How can delays in help seeking cause worser outcomes?

A

Cancer : patients who delay help seeking > 3 months have lower survival (Richards et al., 1999)

Heart Attack : Efficacy of thrombolytic drugs on morbidity and mortality = dependent on administration within first few hours of symptom onset (Horne et al. 2000)

Stroke : Early admission to hospital on detection of stroke symptoms = decreased morbidity (Carroll et al. 2003)

17
Q

Reasons for increased help seeking

A

Frequent attenders commonly present with medically unexplained persistent physical symptoms, that do not have a clear physiological cause(‘medically unexplained symptoms’)

A number of factors associated with presentation:
* Personality traits – neuroticism/perfectionism
* Significant life events
* Combination of infections and other health problems and associated distress
* Effective treatment for medically unexplained symptoms = CBT

18
Q

What are psychological interventions can support people in accurately detecting their symptoms?
Limitations?
What do they adress?

A

Public health campaign intervention
Need for more tailoring
Campaign targets:
Appraisal delay
FAS –Symptom appraisal
Navigation delay
T - Action plan
Personalised mail-outs/social media campaigns
Limitations?
Targets only those with a help seeking disposition

19
Q

What delays need to be adressed?

A

Appraisal delay: Improve a patients illness schema for target condition (e.g. symptom to label matching)

Illness delay: Address heuristics used (e.g. is patient relying on an “old-age schema”

Utilisation delay: Address barriers to attendance:
Clear action plan put in place “if-then” rule.
Fearful – emphasise the support options/care plans available
Involve a family member where necessary