Clinical outcomes of a coping with stress training program among patients suffering from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: a pilot study.

This study evaluated the clinical effects of an intervention aimed at enhancing specific self-efficacy for coping with stress (CSSE) among patients with psychosis. Fourteen patients, 21-60 years old, diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder voluntarily participated and were randomly assigned to a training and a control group. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-24 was used to assess psychotic symptoms (primary outcomes) at baseline, post-intervention, and three- and six-month follow-ups.

Illness beliefs about cancer among healthy adults who have and have not lived with cancer patients.

Background: Illness representations have been proposed as key determinants for facing health risks and managing disease, and consequently for health outcomes.

Purpose: This study aims to know and compare non-specialised illness representations of cancer among adults who had not suffered from cancer and who had/had not lived with cancer patients.

Method: The revised Illness Perception Questionnaire was adapted to assess illness perceptions among healthy people.

Gender differences in pressure pain threshold in a repeated measures assessment.

The objective of this study was to evaluate gender differences in the pain threshold, considering the type of pressure point, its location and the repetition of the assessment. The pressure pain threshold was evaluated in 30 healthy volunteers (12 men and 18 women) in three assessment sessions separated by 15 min and 7 days, respectively. Each assessment session was in turn composed of two trials in each of which 24 different pressure points (symmetrically located), representing the 18 tender points for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia and six control points, were assessed.

Contents of lay illness models dimensions for physical and mental diseases and implications for health professionals.

Objective: The main aim of this study was to establish the contents of the lay illness models on depression, cancer, hypertension, schizophrenia and influenza in healthy and ill people suffering from these diseases who have/have not coexisted with people with these health alterations.

Methods: Dimensions of lay illness models for depression, schizophrenia, cancer, hypertension and influenza were assessed in 348 people (62.6% women) aged 13-50 (M=20.