[Subjective experiences following organ transplantation--a qualitative study of 120 heart, lung, liver, and kidney recipients].

Objectives: The communication with patients who have undergoned transplantation is greatly influenced by their subjective experience. This paper deals with this subjective transplant-specific experience six months after surgery.

Methods: Following their heart, lung, liver, or kidney transplantation, 120 patients were questioned concerning their experiences regarding the transplantation, the organ itself, and changes in their personal life.

Development of life satisfaction in young physicians: results of the prospective SwissMedCareer Study.

Purpose: The objectives of the study were to investigate the gender-related development of life satisfaction in young physicians over an 8-year period of residency, to compare it with a representative sample, and to analyze the relationships between both person- and health-related factors and life satisfaction.

Methods: A prospective study was carried out including five measurement points among a cohort of 337 Swiss physicians. Measurements include domain-specific life satisfaction (FLZ(M)), sense of coherence (SOC-13), anxiety and depression (HADS-D), chronic stress (TICS) and socio-demographic variables.

Cortisol reduces recall of explicit contextual pain memory in healthy young men.

Remembering painful incidents has important adaptive value but may also contribute to clinical symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic pain states. Because glucocorticoids are known to impair memory retrieval processes, we investigated whether cortisol affects recall of previously experienced pain in healthy young men. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, 20 male participants were presented pictures, half of them combined with a heat-pain stimulus.

Distress and alexithymia in lung recipients - psychosocial strains and associations with chronic allograft dysfunction.

Questions Under Study: In recent years, distress and alexithymia have been recognised as psychosocial factors related to both somatic and psychosomatic diseases. In this study distress and alexithymia and their associations with physical parameters were investigated in lung recipients.

Methods: The study, which included 76 patients after a lung transplant, measured psychological distress (Symptom Checklist, SCL-K-9) and alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20).

The impact of gender and parenthood on physicians' careers--professional and personal situation seven years after graduation.

Background: The profile of the medical profession is changing in regard to feminization, attitudes towards the profession, and the lifestyle aspirations of young physicians. The issues addressed in this study are the careers of female and male physicians seven years after graduation and the impact of parenthood on career development.

Methods: Data reported originates from the fifth assessment (T5) of the prospective SwissMedCareer Study, beginning in 2001 (T1).

Chronic stress experience in young physicians: impact of person- and workplace-related factors.

Objectives: The objectives of the present study are to investigate and compare the relative impact of workplace-related factors and personal characteristics on chronic psychosocial stress experience in young physicians.

Methods: In a prospective study, a cohort of Swiss medical school graduates was followed up, beginning in 2001. In their fourth and eighth year after graduation, 443 physicians assessed their workplace conditions, the experienced effort-reward imbalance, the received professional and emotional support as well as their personal characteristics.

Lung function, sociodemographic characteristics, and psychological reaction to transplant associated with chronic stress among lung recipients.

Chronic stress is a well-known consequence of somatic diseases. In this study, we investigated whether physical, sociodemographic, or transplant-related psychological factors were associated with the patient's chronic stress level. A cross-sectional study enrolling 76 patients measured chronic stress (Screening Scale, Screening Subscale of Chronic Stress of the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress) and the emotional effects of the transplant (Transplant Effects Questionnaire), as well as physical and sociodemographic conditions (lung function, bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, working status, and parenting).

Academic career in medicine: requirements and conditions for successful advancement in Switzerland.

Background: Within the framework of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates a sample of young physicians aspiring to an academic career were surveyed on their career support and barriers experienced up to their sixth year of postgraduate training.

Methods: Thirty-one junior academics took part in semi-structured telephone interviews in 2007. The interview guideline focused on career paths to date, career support and barriers experienced, and recommendations for junior and senior academics.

[Anxiety and depression in residents - results of a Swiss longitudinal study].

Objectives: The study investigates the development of anxiety and depression during residents' postgraduate training as well as the symptom patterns and the prediction of these patterns of impaired affectivity by personality factors. It furthermore regards the differences between these patterns in workplace- and career-related factors as well as in worklife balance.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study (2001-2007), 390 junior physicians of various specialties (54.

Psychological processing of transplantation in lung recipients: a quantitative study of organ integration and the relationship to the donor.

Objectives: Lung recipients undergo a complex psychological process, including organ integration and processing of attitudes towards the organ donor.

Design: Seventy-six lung recipients were asked to participate in a cross-sectional questionnaire study on the psychological processing of lung transplants.

Methods: The questionnaire consisted of statements describing aspects of organ integration and the patient's relationship with the donor.

Psychosocial profiles after transplantation: a 24-month follow-up of heart, lung, liver, kidney and allogeneic bone-marrow patients.

Objectives: Quality of life and psychosocial well-being usually improve after an organ transplant and remain stable for a minimum of several years. These findings, however, mainly apply to the "average" trend for transplant patients. This study aims to investigate whether transplant patients fall into different groups in good or poor psychosocial outcome after organ transplantation.

Psychological response and quality of life after transplantation: a comparison between heart, lung, liver and kidney recipients.

Principles: Various non-specific questionnaires were used to measure quality of life and psychological wellbeing of patients after organ transplantation. At present cross-organ studies dealing specifically with the psychological response to a transplanted organ are non-existent in German-speaking countries.

Methods: The Transplant Effects Questionnaire TxEQ-D and the SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire were used to examine the psychological response and quality of life of 370 patients after heart, lung, liver or kidney transplantation.

Career-success scale - a new instrument to assess young physicians' academic career steps.

Background: Within the framework of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates, a Career-Success Scale (CSS) was constructed in a sample of young physicians choosing different career paths in medicine. Furthermore the influence of personality factors, the participants' personal situation, and career related factors on their career success was investigated.

Methods: 406 residents were assessed in terms of career aspired to, and their career progress.

The new generation of family physicians--career motivation, life goals and work-life balance.

Questions Under Study: The present study aimed to investigate the differences between future family physicians, and physicians aspiring to other medical specialities, in terms of sociodemographic factors and variables concerning personality factors, career motivation, career success, importance of life goals and work-life balance; further, the stability in career choice of family physicians from medical school through to residency was evaluated.

Methods: Data reported are from four assessments of the Swiss physicians' longitudinal career development study, begun in 2001 (T1). At T4, in 2007, 543 residents (76% of the initial sample at T1) completed a questionnaire concerning their personal and professional goals.

[Questionnaire on emotional response after organ transplantation: German validation of the Transplant Effect Questionnaire (TxEQ-D)].

Objectives: The present study investigates a) whether the German version of the Transplant Effects Questionnaire (TxEQ-D), which measures the emotional response to an organ transplantation, has the same factorial structure as the English original version and b) whether the psychometric properties as well as the correlations with the scales of the SF-36 are comparable.

Methods: The questionnaire TxEQ was translated into German and filled out by 370 heart, lunge, liver and kidney transplant patients. Subsequently, factor and item analyses were conducted.

Work stress and reduced health in young physicians: prospective evidence from Swiss residents.

Objectives: Job stress, investigated by the effort-reward model in various working environments in different countries, has been widely reported, yet studies addressing physicians are lacking. The present study investigated the perceived job stress, its association with the amount of working hours, and its impact on young physicians' self-reported health and their satisfaction with life during residency.

Methods: In a prospective study design, a cohort of Swiss medical school graduates was followed up, beginning in 2001.

Quality of life and psychosocial situation before and after a lung, liver or an allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Results from a prospective study.

Background And Objectives: Only few comparative prospective studies have been published on psychosocial issues of organ transplant. This study investigated patient groups with various organ transplants with respect to their quality of life and psychosocial situation before and after surgery.

Methods: 76 patients receiving an organ transplant (lung n = 22, liver n = 26, allogeneic bone marrow n = 28) were investigated with regard to quality of life (SF-36), life satisfaction (FLZ), social support (F-SozU), and psychological symptoms (HADS-D) before (T0) as well as six (T1) and twelve (T2) months after transplant.

Anxiolytic therapy with alprazolam increases muscle sympathetic activity in patients with panic disorders.

Anxiolytic therapy with the benzodiazepine alprazolam is an established therapy in patients with panic disorder. Normally, panic-like anxiety and its concomitant physical symptoms quickly disappear under such treatment. Therefore we investigated whether there is a difference in sympathetic nervous system in patients with panic disorder compared to healthy controls.

Psychosocial vulnerability predicts psychosocial outcome after an organ transplant: results of a prospective study with lung, liver, and bone-marrow patients.

Objective: The pretransplant medical evaluation of transplantation candidates includes an assessment of psychosocial data. This study investigates psychosocial vulnerability as a predictor of posttransplant outcome.

Methods: Seventy-six patients were assessed prior to lung, liver, or bone-marrow transplant.

[Psychosocial need for counselling before and after a lung, liver or allogenic bone marrow transplant--results of a prospective study].

Objectives: Transplant patients are exposed to many different types of mental and social stress. The study investigates these patients' need for psychosocial counselling.

Methods: At 6 months and again at 12 months following either a lung, liver or bone-marrow transplantation, 76 patients were questioned about their need for psychosocial counselling.

Swiss residents' speciality choices--impact of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goals.

Background: The medical specialties chosen by doctors for their careers play an important part in the development of health-care services. This study aimed to investigate the influence of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goal aspirations on the choice of medical specialty.

Methods: As part of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates on career development, 522 fourth-year residents were asked in what specialty they wanted to qualify.

Swiss residents' arguments for and against a career in medicine.

Background: In some Western countries, the medical profession is continuously losing prestige, doctors are claiming of high demands, low rewards, and difficult structural working conditions. This study aimed to investigate the arguments given by Swiss residents for and against a career in medicine.

Methods: As part of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates on career development, 567 fourth-year residents were asked to answer the free-response item of what arguments there still were in favour of or against a career in medicine.

Altered blood coagulation in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, though the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved are elusive. A hypercoagulable state before occurrence of coronary thrombosis contributes to atherosclerosis development. We investigated whether PTSD would be associated with increased coagulation activity.

Primary care in Switzerland--no longer attractive for young physicians?

Background And Objectives: A trend away from primary care (PC) to other specialties has been noted in Switzerland, as well as in the health-care systems of many other Western countries. The objective of the present study was to ascertain how many third-year residents graduating in 2001/02 from medical schools in German-speaking Switzerland wanted to become PC physicians (PCPs), whether this career goal was continuously followed, and how many subjects switched to or away from PC during residency.

Methods: Data reported are from the third assessment of the longitudinal Swiss physicians' career development study, begun in 2001.

Quality of life and psychosocial situation before and after a lung, liver or an allogeneic bone marrow transplant.

Background And Objectives: Only few comparative prospective studies have been published on psychosocial issues of organ transplant. This study investigated patient groups with various organ transplants with respect to their quality of life and psychosocial situation before and after surgery.

Methods: 76 patients receiving an organ transplant (lung n = 22, liver n = 26, allogeneic bone marrow n = 28) were investigated with regard to quality of life (SF-36), life satisfaction (FLZ), social support (F-SozU), and psychological symptoms (HADS-D) before (T0) as well as six (T1) and twelve (T2) months after transplant.