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- Bergdahl, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Psychobiological personality dimensions in two environmental-illness patient groups
- 2005
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Ingår i: Clinical Oral Investigations. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-6981 .- 1436-3771. ; 9:4, s. 251-256
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychobiological personality dimensions in two subgroups of patients with environmental illness (EI). Fifty-nine patients, 34 women and 25 men (aged 32-69 years), were referred for symptoms allegedly caused by abnormal sensitivity to either dental fillings (DF; n=26) or electromagnetic fields (EMF; n=33). For the evaluation of personality, the Swedish 238-item version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was used. Compared with a control group, the EMF group scored higher on the temperament dimension Persistence. The DF group scored higher on the TCI subscales Harm Avoidance (fatigability and asthenia) and Self-Directedness (self-acceptance). Women scored higher than men did on the Novelty Seeking and Reward Dependence (RD) dimensions in the DF group and on RD in the control group, indicating an inherited gender difference. No differences were found between men and women in the EMF group. Our results indicate that the high level of persistence found in the EMF group and the high level of fatigability and asthenia in combination with high self-acceptance found in the DF group represent vulnerable personalities. No significant differences were found between the two patient groups, indicating that these groups are quite similar regarding personality. This vulnerability can be expressed as various mental and somatic symptoms, which can be interpreted as El symptoms by the affected individual.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Hammar, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Celebrating the Past by Expanding the Future : The Faculty of Health Science, Linköping University 1986–2006
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the fall of 2006, the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) celebrates its 20th birthday. Linköping has a long tradition of health education; our nursing programme started already in 1895 and occupational therapy began in 1965. From the late 1960’s, medical students from Uppsala spent their last seven semesters in Linköping, mainly for clinical studies. After some years, academic and teachers from the young faculty, together with the county council, realized the enormous potential benefits of a complete undergraduate medical programme at Linköping University. Inspired by apparent innovations from McMaster University in Canada, Maastricht in Holland, Ben Gurion in Israel and Tromsø in Norway, these ideas and ideals were gradually turned into reality. In a complicated process, concerning the life or death of the medical faculty, a close co-operation between the University and the County Council of Östergötland was extremely fruitful. A proposal regarding a complete medical programme, and study periods integrated between the other health education programmes, was forwarded to the Swedish government in December 1982 and approved in 1984.The new FHS at Linköping University was launched in 1986, and by the end of August the first students began their studies. Already at the start, FHS included several programmes for health professionals: nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, medicine, social welfare and laboratory technology. Speech and language pathology was added in 2003 and the education curriculum for laboratory technicians was developed into a master’s programme in medical biology. A number of important concepts were included in the new programmes. Problem based learning (PBL) was chosen as the fundamental basis for organising studies; using small tutorial groups with supervisors as “coaches” and real patient histories as triggers for learning. Since 2001, realistic cases/scenarios are made available on the Intranet.PBL is highly appreciated by the majority of students and teachers. This method of learning focused in contexts, according to pedagogic research, leads to a higher retention of knowledge than in traditional teacher-centered approaches toward learning. Important PBL spin-off effects are in educating students to cooperate in groups, to communicate and argue, to listen to other students’ opinions, to evaluate their own efforts and to identify learning needs. Furthermore, the method implies that students’ learn to independently find and evaluate scientific information, thereby realizing that the truth is somewhat “relative,” since what they find may differ depending on the sources used. Perhaps the most important characteristic of PBL is that it moves the main responsibility for obtaining goals and new knowledge from the teacher to the student.Other important elements of the various curricula at the FHS are vertical and horizontal integration. In vertical integration, e.g. between clinical and basic science, different sections are interwoven with clear progressive shifts over phases and semesters. This has shown to stimulate profound rather than superficial learning, and probably stimulates better understanding. Horizontal integration focuses on the simultaneous learning of several subjects needed to understand and explain the scenarios used.In PBL, teachers are expected to cooperate over departmental borders, a process that often produces positive spin-off effects extending further to research. They take on many different roles as e.g. planners, semester coordinators, tutors, lecturers and clinical supervisors. As such, newcomers may encounter certain frustration. Continuous staff development is critical to assure pedagogical selection and excellence, and thereby the quality of the programmes.In PBL, teachers are expected to cooperate over departmental borders, a process that often produces positive spin-off effects extending further to research. They take on many different roles as e.g. planners, semester coordinators, tutors, lecturers and clinical supervisors. As such, newcomers may encounter certain frustration. Continuous staff development is critical to assure pedagogical selection and excellence, and thereby the quality of the programmes.The aim to be a medical faculty with a standing among the most progressive worldwide implies continuous evaluation and development. Our mission is to foster the very best in health care; health care extending consideration toward educating competent professionals and conducting quality research with a focus on societal needs and welfare. To fulfil this mission, we need to advance teaching models based on evidence, and continuously improve and develop our educational methods. This process requires cooperation between departments, teachers and students within the university and indeed, throughout the world. Such contacts and collaborations are as important in education as they are in research, and extend an endless source of inspiration. Communication between the different undergraduate programmes at FHS has been extremely fruitful and should further be stimulated. At the faculty level, it is important to provide teachers with credit for efforts and development toward education. To keep integration and innovation at a high level, it is very important to balance the decision power and the distribution of money between departments and programmes.The aim of this book is to provide a general overview, in glimpses, of some of the important developments in FHS education; to describe new ideas in progress or those already turned to reality and also, to extend some consideration of publications regarding our educational innovations. We hope these examples provide the essence of inspiration for future work, contributing to improved education and better health for all.
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| 4. |
- Tillberg, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Changes in health over time in patients with symptoms allegedly caused by dental restorative materials
- 2005
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Ingår i: Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology. - : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. - 0301-5661 .- 1600-0528. ; 33:6, s. 427-437
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract – Objectives: In Sweden, many patients with symptoms allegedly caused by their dental materials have exchanged their restorations, but the effects of the exchange have been insufficiently investigated. Therefore, the aim of the study was to describe the change in health over time for these patients and the hypothesis was that the patients could be divided based on their symptoms and that the ability to recover differs between these groups. Furthermore, we also examined if other factors such as replacement of dental restorative materials and follow-up time had any impact on the perceived health status.Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 614 patients who had been referred to the School of Dentistry, Umeå, Sweden, with symptoms allegedly caused by dental restorative materials. The response rate was 55%.Results: The risk of having any further complaints was higher for patients with complex symptoms (P = 0.03) and these patients had exchanged their restorations to a significantly larger extent than the others (P = 0.03). The remaining complaints was more frequent among men (P = 0.02). Exchange of dental restorative materials had no significant impact on the ability to recover completely. However, the patients who had exchanged their restorations completely perceived a significantly larger alleviation of their symptoms than the others (P < 0.01), although the frequency of most of the symptoms had increased.Conclusions: Patients with complex symptoms had a more unfavorable long-term prognosis concerning persistent complaints than those with localized symptoms only. Furthermore, the results indicate that the patients might experience health improvements after removal of their dental restorative materials. The reason for this improvement, however, is unclear. Further analyses regarding other possible explanations than the ‘odontological/medical’ are needed.
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| 7. |
- Öhman, Lena, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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Longitudinal analysis of the relation between moderate long-term stress and health
- 2007
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Ingår i: Stress and Health. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1532-3005 .- 1532-2998. ; 23:2, s. 131-138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The main goal of the present work was to longitudinally examine consequences of long-term moderately elevated levels of stress for various health outcomes. To address this issue, data covering 10 years was used from the ongoing Swedish population-based prospective Betula Study. Based on the ratings on a validated self-reported stress scale, matched subsamples between 40 and 65 years of age were divided into a high (n = 137) and low (n = 211) stress group. The reported incidence of cardiovascular, diabetes, psychiatric, tumour and musculoskeletal diseases was assessed 5 and 10 years after baseline (baseline = 1993–1995) without contaminating effects of past health history. The incidence of diseases 5 years after baseline assessment showed no differences between the groups. After 10 years, there was a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric diseases, mainly depression in the high-stress group as well as a significant effect for tumours, although the number of cases was low. Although moderately elevated stress level may have a possible impact on psychiatric diseases especially depression and some tumours, it seems that prolonged moderate stress does not appear to be harmful to other stress-related diseases.
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| 8. |
- Öhman, Lena
(författare)
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Perceived chronic stress, health and cognition
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this licentiate thesis was to examine consequences of chronic stress for stressrelated diseases and to investigate the chronic stress – cognition relationship. In the first study data covering ten years was used from the Betula Prospective Cohort Study (Nilsson et al., 1997). Based on the ratings on a stress scale, matched samples between 40 and 65 years of age were divided into a high and low stress group. The reported incidence of cardiovascular, diabetes, psychiatric, tumor, and musculoskeletal diseases wasassessed five and ten years after a baseline assessment. The incidence of diseases five years after baseline assessment showed no differences between the groups. After ten years, there was a higher incidence of psychiatric diseases in the high stress group as well as a significant effect for tumors. These results indicated that moderately elevated stress levels may have an impact on psychiatric diseases, especially depression, and possibly also some tumor diseases, but it was concluded that prolonged moderate stress does not appear to be very harmful to health in general. In the second study cognitive performance was studied in chronic stress outpatients and matched controls. A battery of cognitive tests assessing processing speed, attention, episodic-, semantic- and working memory was used. Performance decrements for thechronic stress patients were found in episodic memory, particularly in learning across repeated trials, and in tasks requiring divided attention under either encoding or retrieval of words. Performance differences were also seen in aspects of working memory, mental tempo, semantic access (letter fluency) and prospective memory. It was concluded that executive functioning may be suboptimal in chronic stress patients and that letter fluency and prospective memory tests can be useful as clinical tools when evaluating chronic stressstates. Taken together, the findings indicate that there is no clear association between moderately elevated chronic stress and increased incidence of stress related diseases, whereas certain cognitive functions such as executive functioning appear vulnerable to chronic stress.
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