Trait anxiety mediates the effect of stress exposure on post-traumatic stress disorder and depression risk in cardiac surgery patients.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are common after cardiac surgery. Lifetime stress exposure and personality traits may influence the development of these psychiatric conditions.

Methods: Self-reported rates of PTSD and depression and potential determinants (i.

The Effect of Dexamethasone on Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression After Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care Admission: Longitudinal Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Cardiac surgery and postoperative admission to the ICU may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Perioperatively administered corticosteroids potentially alter the risk of development of these psychiatric conditions, by affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, findings of previous studies are inconsistent.

The power of clinicians' affective communication: how reassurance about non-abandonment can reduce patients' physiological arousal and increase information recall in bad news consultations. An experimental study using analogue patients.

Objective: The diagnosis of incurable cancer may evoke physiological arousal in patients. Physiological arousal can negatively impact patients' recall of information provided in the medical consultation. We aim to investigate whether clinicians' affective communication during a bad news consultation will decrease patients' physiological arousal and will improve recall.