While there has been burgeoning interest in the psychiatric literature about the phenomenology and biology of panic disorder, there is little new information about the psychodynamics of this condition. The reintroduction of a psychodynamic perspective could be useful in guiding research strategies to identify traits which predispose to panic and in designing treatments to address such traits. A psychodynamic model hypothesizes a relationship between current psychological functioning, early experiences, and ongoing psychological traits. Recent published reports about the nature of underlying psychodynamics and psychological characteristics of panic disorder are discussed.
More than any other organ of human anatomy, the heart is symbolically charged with emotions. Introducing a foreign body into the heart, even a pacemaker, would be expected to alter, if not damage the most intimate of personal attributes, an individual's personality. Nevertheless, standard measures of emotions, administered before and after pacemaker implantation, revealed an improvement in psychological well-being in an unselected sample of 80 patients, aged 36 to 80 years. Furthermore, these results occurred whether or not patients returned to work.
We investigated heart rate and heart-rate variability in 82 patients, 60 men and 22 women (M = 54 yr., SD = 9) with acute coronary heart disease and scores on Bortner's scale at hospital admission and discharge. 48 patients were classified by their scores on Bortner's scale as Type A and 34 as Type B. Patients with acute coronary heart disease classified as Type A had a significantly lower mean heart rate than patients with acute coronary heart disease classified as Type B during the day at hospital admission and discharge and during the night at hospital discharge. Mean heart-rate variability was also significantly higher in the patients with acute coronary heart disease classified as Type A than in the patients with acute coronary heart disease classified as Type B during the day at hospital admission and discharge. The differences between two groups on the average heart rate and heart-rate variability were not significant during the night at hospital admission. In our study the patients with acute coronary heart disease classified by scores on Bortner's scale as Type A had higher vagal tone and more favorable sympathovagal balance than patients classified as Type B. This finding may have implications for the treatment of patients with acute coronary heart disease and may suggest some explanation about the protective effect of Type A behavior also.
Personality scores of Croatian men and women by age, occupation, education, satisfaction of life needs, and religion were examined. 842 men and 242 women whose mean age was 42 yr. (SD, 8) represented manual labor, clerical work, and management. Employees were administered the Emotions Profile Index and a test of Life Needs Satisfaction. The Croatian women scored lower on Distrustful and Dyscontrol than the Croatian men and higher on Depression and Gregarious. Scores on Aggression, Depression, and Gregarious varied across age groups. The Reproduction scores of sociable and affectionate were significantly higher for managers and persons with university education. The religious employees scored higher on Depression than nonreligious persons. The Reproduction scores were significantly positively associated with all needs satisfaction scores. The Destruction scores (Aggression, Depression) were significantly negatively associated with most life needs satisfactions. The present analysis suggests men and women from Croatian groups have different personality profiles. Correlations of emotional scores with ages, occupations, education, life needs satisfaction, and religion could help in modification toward positive emotional dimensions.
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