The effect of visualisation and mindfulness-based decentering on chocolate craving.

According to the elaborated intrusion (EI) theory of desire, loading visual working memory should help prevent and reduce cravings because cravings occur when intrusive thoughts are elaborated upon in working memory, often as vivid mental images. Mindfulness-based decentering strategies may also help prevent and reduce cravings since they may divert attention away from craving-related thoughts and mental imagery. To compare the effects of visualisation versus decentering on cravings, participants (N = 108) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) decentering, (b) visualisation, (c) mind-wandering control.

Does Pain Acceptance Predict Physical and Psychological Outcomes in Cancer Outpatients with Pain?

Pain acceptance has been associated with improved physical and psychosocial well-being in chronic non-malignant pain patients. However, its effects are unclear in cancer outpatients with pain. Our aim was to determine whether pain acceptance predicts reduced pain, pain interference with function, anxiety, and depression in cancer outpatients.

Psychological distress amongst immigration detainees: a cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Objectives: To compare levels of depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst immigration detainees with a comparison group of asylum seekers living within the community.

Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Methods: Sixty-seven detained asylum seekers, 30 detainees who had previously been imprisoned within the UK for criminal offences, and 49 asylum seekers living in the community completed the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and the impact of event scale-revised (IES-R).

Individuals' experience of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a condition of unknown aetiology that consists of symptoms such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, gastric problems and a range of neurological disturbances. Due to the fact that these symptoms are complaints that most individuals will experience to a varying degree, it seems pertinent to investigate the processes by which those with CFS/ME conceptualise their symptoms and the experience of reaching a diagnosis. Participants were recruited from local CFS/ME support groups.

Towards an understanding of British public attitudes concerning human cloning.

The ability of scientists to apply cloning technology to humans has provoked public discussion and media coverage. The present paper reports on a series of studies examining public attitudes to human cloning in the UK, bringing together a range of quantitative and qualitative methods to address this question. These included a nationally representative survey, an experimental vignette study, focus groups and analyses of media coverage.

Public responses to precautionary information from the Department of Health (UK) about possible health risks from mobile phones.

Understanding public perceptions of health information is of increasing importance in the light of the growing imperatives upon regulators to communicate information about risk and uncertainty. Communicating the possible health risks from mobile telecommunications is a domain that allows consideration of both public perceptions of uncertain public health information and public responses to precautionary advice. This research reports the results of a nationally representative survey in the UK (n=1742) that explored public responses to a leaflet issued by the Department of Health (DoH) in 2000 providing information about the possible health risks of mobile phones.

Mutational analysis in UK patients with a clinical diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia: relationship with plasma lipid traits, heart disease risk and utility in relative tracing.

As part of a randomised trial [Genetic Risk Assessment for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) Trial] of the psychological consequences of DNA-based and non-DNA-based diagnosis of FH, 338 probands with a clinical diagnosis of FH (46% with tendon xanthomas) were recruited. In the DNA-based testing arm (245 probands), using single-strand conformation polymorphism of all exons of the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene, 48 different pathogenic mutations were found in 62 probands (25%), while 7 (2.9%) of the patients had the R3500Q mutation in the apolipoprotein B (APOB) gene.

Self-reported adherence to cholesterol-lowering medication in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia: the role of illness perceptions.

Background: The objectives of this study are to describe levels of adherence to cholesterol-lowering medication and to identify predictors of adherence in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH).

Design: Descriptive questionnaire study.

Methods: 336 adults patients with FH attending one of five outpatient lipid clinics in South East England underwent a clinical assessment by a nurse and completed a questionnaire.

Fetal fibronectin test predicts delivery before 30 weeks of gestation in high risk women, but increases anxiety.

Objective: To assess efficacy of cervico-vaginal fetal fibronectin as a predictor of spontaneous preterm birth in a high risk antenatal population, and to evaluate the psychological impact of fetal fibronectin testing.

Design: An observational study.

Setting: The antenatal clinic at a tertiary referral hospital.

Psychological impact of genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolemia within a previously aware population: a randomized controlled trial.

This trial tests the hypothesis that confirming a clinical diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) by finding a genetic mutation reduces patients' perceptions of control over the disease and adherence to risk-reducing behaviors. Three hundred forty-one families, comprising 341 hypercholesterolemia probands and 128 adult relatives, were randomized to one of two groups: (a) routine clinical diagnosis; (b) routine clinical diagnosis plus genetic testing (mutation searching in probands and direct gene testing in relatives). The main outcome measures were perceptions of control over hypercholesterolemia, adherence to cholesterol-lowering medication, diet, physical activity, and smoking.

The influence of perceived control over causes and responses to health threats: a vignette study.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that a disease caused by controllable, compared with uncontrollable, factors is more likely to result in negative emotions and less likelihood of disclosure to significant others.

Design And Methods: A between-participants design in which students (N=108) imagined they had just been diagnosed with either HIV or hypertension and where the cause for each was described as either controllable or uncontrollable. Anticipated emotional and behavioural responses by self and others were assessed by questionnaire.

Understanding why negative genetic test results sometimes fail to reassure.

A proportion of those receiving negative results following predictive genetic testing desire future bowel screening. This is despite a negative result meaning a general population risk of 1:7500 and despite bowel screening being experienced as aversive and clinically unnecessary. This study aimed to investigate perceptions of risk, illness, and tests amongst those receiving negative results following predictive genetic testing.

The structure of beliefs about the causes of heart attacks: A network analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the structure of causal beliefs about heart attack, using network analysis, in particular to determine whether there is a consensual representation and, if so, which putative causes of heart attacks were perceived as being proximal or distal causes and which were perceived to mediate the effects of other causes. METHODS: A total of 107 adult respondents completed questionnaires, indicating the extent to which they perceived each of eight agents as causes of a heart attack, as well as whether they perceived that each of these eight causal agents, in turn, causally affects each of the other seven causal agents. RESULTS: A consensual representation was produced, indicating how these eight agents were perceived as causally relating to each other, and to heart attack.

Eliciting Causal Beliefs about Heart Attacks: A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Methods.

Objective To compare beliefs about the importance of different factors in causing heart attacks, elicited by explicit questionnaire ratings and an implicit vignette task. Method In two separate studies: (1) 107 adults (aged 40-60 years); and (2) 134 students completed two tasks: (a) a questionnaire in which they explicitly rated the importance of a number of causes of heart attacks; and (b) a vignette task in which they implicitly used risk factor information to estimate a hypothetical man's likelihood of a heart attack. Results In both studies, family history was rated as a significantly less important cause than smoking or stress on the explicit questionnaire; in the implicit task, smoking and family history exerted a much greater influence on estimates of risk than did stress.

Making sense of risk: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of vulnerability to heart disease.

This study investigates perceptions of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and its genetic basis in patients diagnosed with, and receiving treatment for, FH. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven patients. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).