Improvement in the psychological health of nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Nurses are a critical component of any healthcare system. The novel coronavirus pandemic has resulted in an increased workload for nurses and heightened stress.

Aims: To assess the psychological health over time of nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the factors associated with stress, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing.

Improving Measurement of Trait Competitiveness: A Rasch Analysis of the Revised Competitiveness Index With Samples From New Zealand and US University Students.

Measuring competitiveness is necessary to fully understand variables affecting student learning. The 14-item Revised Competitiveness Index has become a widely used measure to assess trait competitiveness. The current study reports on a Rasch analysis to investigate the psychometric properties of the Revised Competitiveness Index and to improve its precision for international comparisons.

Rasch analysis of the Perceived Stress Scale: Transformation from an ordinal to a linear measure.

Rasch analysis was conducted to enhance the precision of the widely used 10-item Perceived Stress Scale using two datasets (= 450 each) randomly selected from samples of the New Zealand general population (= 1102), New Zealand university students (= 479) and US university students ( = 396). The best Rasch model fit ((27) = 29.92,  = .

Higher resting heart rate variability predicts skill in expressing some emotions.

Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is a measure of cardiac vagal tone, and is widely viewed as a physiological index of the capacity to regulate emotions. However, studies have not directly tested whether vmHRV is associated with the ability to facially express emotions. In extending prior work, the current report tested links between resting vmHRV and the objectively assessed ability to facially express emotions, hypothesizing that higher vmHRV would predict greater expressive skill.

'Oxytocin' for the outwardly oriented: Evidence for interactive effects in placebo responding.

Objective: In order to harness the placebo effect for clinical benefit, more research is needed to determine who might be responsive to a placebo treatment. Recently, a two-faceted Transactional Model of Placebo Responding (TMPR) was offered, which suggests different personality types might respond to different contextual cues. The current study directly tested this model by manipulating treatment descriptors to match the two purported facets of responsiveness.

A take-home placebo treatment can reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression in a non-patient population.

Background: With a healthcare system burdened by symptomatic and mental-health related conditions, the placebo effect may represent a useful clinical tool. First, however, there is a need to broaden research attention and investigate placebo effects outside laboratories and beyond experimental pain. This study investigated the effectiveness of a take-home placebo treatment in the short-term alleviation of stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression in a non-patient population.

Trait predictors of placebo responses in itch.

This study investigated trait predictors of placebo responses in the context of inflammatory skin reactions. This was a randomized, cross-over, experimental study using a deceptive placebo protocol. A healthy sample of volunteers (N = 48) completed online personality measures, then attended two laboratory sessions in which short-term inflammatory skin reactions were induced.

Placebo 'serotonin' increases heart rate variability in recovery from psychosocial stress.

Objective: To investigate placebo effects on heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in recovery from a psychosocial stressor.

Methods: A healthy sample underwent two mental arithmetic stress tests in one experimental session. After undergoing the baseline test, participants were randomized into control or placebo groups.

The placebo effect in inflammatory skin reactions: the influence of verbal suggestion on itch and weal size.

Purpose: To investigate suggestion-induced placebo effects in inflammatory skin reactions.

Methods: A healthy sample of volunteers (N = 48) attended two laboratory sessions. In each, a local short term inflammatory skin reaction was induced with histamine.

Who responds to placebos? Considering the "placebo personality" via a transactional model.

The placebo effect is now recognised as a genuine psychobiological phenomenon; however, the question of how it can be systematically harnessed to improve health outcomes is not yet clear. One issue that remains unresolved is why some respond to placebos and others do not. A number of traits have been linked to responding, but findings are scattered.

Investigating the 'placebo personality' outside the pain paradigm.

Aim: To identify personality traits related to placebo responding outside the context of pain.

Methods: Sixty three healthy volunteers completed the study. Personality traits were measured online one week prior to a laboratory session in which two psychosocial stress tests were administered.

Expressive writing and wound healing in older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To investigate whether expressive writing could speed wound reepithelialization in healthy, older adults.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 49 healthy older adults aged 64 to 97 years were assigned to write for 20 minutes a day either about upsetting life events (Expressive Writing) or about daily activities (Time Management) for 3 consecutive days. Two weeks postwriting, 4-mm punch biopsy wounds were created on the inner, upper arm.

Expectation and the placebo effect in inflammatory skin reactions: a randomised-controlled trial.

Objective: This study investigated the placebo effect on experimentally induced skin reactions via the manipulation of expectation.

Methods: Fifty-eight healthy volunteers were randomised into either expectancy or control groups. All participants received a baseline administration of histamine on one arm (Time 1), then a second administration on the other arm, approximately 30 minutes later (Time 2).

Dispositional emotion coping styles and physiological responses to expressive writing.

Objectives: The purpose of these two studies was to assess how repressors and defensive, high-anxious individuals exhibit their psychological and health characteristics subjectively through self-reports and objectively through physiological markers and ratings of emotional expression.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive design (study one) and randomized controlled design (study two).

Methods: In the first descriptive study, repressors, defensive, high-anxious individuals and low-anxious individuals were identified from a pool of 748 undergraduates.

Effects of massage on antibody responses after hepatitis B vaccination.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether participation in a 4-week massage intervention is associated with reduced distress and enhanced antibody responses after hepatitis B vaccine in students embarking on academic examinations.

Methods: Seventy medical student volunteers (36 women, 34 men) were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Baseline assessments were made of distress, health behaviors, and prevaccination antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen.

Symbolic diseases and "mindbody" co-emergence. A challenge for psychoneuroimmunology.

Physical diseases that appear to be symbolic somatic representations of patients' personal meanings or individual 'stories' continue to be reported in the medical literature. The identification of a symbolic disease requires a clinical focus upon a patient's highly individual and nuanced meanings largely rendered invisible by the usual methodologies of clinical and research medicine, which has no coherent model for understanding symbolic disease. Therefore, a model is proposed of co-emergence of physicality and subjectivity, body and mind, disease and meaning, disease and symbol, which does provide a coherent basis for understanding symbolic disease.

A brief relaxation intervention reduces stress and improves surgical wound healing response: a randomised trial.

Psychological stress has been shown to impair wound healing, but experimental research in surgical patients is lacking. This study investigated whether a brief psychological intervention could reduce stress and improve wound healing in surgical patients. This randomised controlled trial was conducted at a surgical centre.

The humoral response after laparoscopic versus open colorectal surgery: a meta-analysis.

Background: The local and systemic humoral response after colorectal surgery is thought to affect postoperative recovery. It is commonly claimed that laparoscopic surgery elicits a diminished inflammatory response than equivalent open surgery. Despite these claims, the evidence is conflicting.

A prospective study on the influence of a fast-track program on postoperative fatigue and functional recovery after major colonic surgery.

Introduction: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs have demonstrated significant reduction in hospital stay for patients undergoing colonic surgery; however, their impact on long-term outcomes, such as postoperative fatigue (POF), has not been fully established.

Aim: To assess the impact of an ERAS program on POF and recovery following elective open colonic surgery.

Method: In a prospective study, 26 consecutive patients undergoing open colonic surgery under a conventional care plan were compared with 26 consecutive patients in an ERAS program.

Fatigue after colorectal surgery and its relationship to patient expectations.

Background: Feelings of fatigue are pronounced even after uncomplicated abdominal surgery. Patient expectations are associated with a variety of postsurgical outcomes, but few data about fatigue prevalence, nature, and time frame are available for patients and health professionals. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effect of patient expectations on fatigue experiences following major colorectal surgery.

Peritoneal inflammation and fatigue experiences following colorectal surgery: a pilot study.

Objective: The effect of post-surgical inflammation, as indicated by peritoneal cytokines and neopterin, was assessed on the duration and characteristics of post-surgical fatigue (PSF) experiences.

Background: During the weeks following major colorectal surgery, many patients report experiencing substantial fatigue but the physiological factors contributing to this are not well understood. Because cytokines, particularly pro-inflammatory cytokines, have been found to be important in fatigue-related experiences in experimental systems, they may well be important mediators of PSF.

Examination stress results in altered cardiovascular responses to acute challenge and lower cortisol.

The present study examined how cardiovascular and salivary cortisol responses varied in response to an acute challenge in medical students under exam stress versus those not under exam stress. One hundred and twenty-nine medical students were randomly assigned to undertake a CO2 inhalation test either prior to an examination period (exam group) or during a regular academic period (non-exam group). Heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured for 5 min before and 5 min after the task, and salivary cortisol samples were collected 1 min before and 10 and 30 min after the CO2 inhalation test.

Differential production of cytokines following colorectal surgery.

Background: Colorectal surgery is associated with a number of postoperative complications, including anastomotic leak and local recurrence. These complications are more common after rectal surgery than after colon surgery. Cytokines are secreted into the peritoneal cavity after colorectal surgery and have a number of metabolic and immunological effects.

Changes in emotion regulation and psychological adjustment following use of a group psychosocial support program for women recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

This study assesses the efficacy of a group intervention in altering emotion regulation processes and promoting adjustment in women with breast cancer. Using a design with 10 alternating phases of availability of the intervention versus standard care, we assessed women participating in one of three conditions: a 12-week group intervention (N = 54); a decliner group who refused the intervention (N = 56), and a standard care group who were not offered the intervention (N = 44). The intervention included training in relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, emotional expression, and exercises promoting control beliefs and benefit-finding.