Serious offenses against persons perpetrated by juveniles raise fundamental questions about the background, causes, and prevention of future crime. The current study addresses the potential of future crime of all juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) in the Netherlands in the period 1992-2007. In contrast to former research on recidivism of JHOs, which has been merely descriptive, the present study integrates theoretical perspectives as to why some of these juveniles turn back to crime, while others do not. To this end, relationships are investigated between recidivism behavior and risk factors. Results indicate that male JHOs, and JHOs who maintain relationships with delinquents, run a greater risk of reoffending.
Objective: To summarize the literature on alexithymia in cancer patients. Methods: The empirical literature published between 1972 and January 2010 was searched through MEDLINE, PSYINFO, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. Key words were: alexithymia, affective symptoms, cancer, neoplasms. Results: The search identified 16 relevant studies which are methodologically problematic and show conflicting results. However, several interesting hypotheses emerge such as a possible link between alexithymia and the immune system, between alexithymia and quality of life, or between alexithymia, anxiety and depression. The question to what degree alexithymia in cancer patients is a trait or a state cannot be answered by these studies. Conclusions: A lack of methodologically sound studies and the large variations of results among studies suggest that the role of alexithymia in patients with cancer deserves more systematic research. Consequently, studies are needed which investigate the nature (state or trait) of alexithymia, its impact on cancer development and progression, as well as its influence on compliance and on the underestimation of psychological distress and psychiatric outcome in cancer patients.
Our study shows that patient satisfaction with communication and working alliance is not influenced by the content of the consultation but is significantly associated with the physician's self-regulation (defense mechanisms) and stress. The results of this study might contribute to optimizing communication skills training and to improving communication and working alliance in cancer care.
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