Bakgrund: Prostatacancer är den vanligaste formen av cancer bland män i Sverige. Att få en cancerdiagnos innebär stress för både patienten och dess partner.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka grad av stressreaktioner i form av undvikande beteende och påträngande tankar hos patienter med prostatacancer och deras partner. Ytterligare ett syfte var att kvalitetssäkra mätinstrumentets formulering och svarsalternativ.Metod: Arbetet var en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie. Datainsamlingen gjordes med hjälp av enkät “Impact of Event Scale” (IES) samt en enkät utformad enligt “The Question and Answer Model” (QAM) för att kvalitetssäkra IES. Enkäterna delades ut på kirurg- och onkologmottagningar i Uppsala och Falun under våren 2013. Studiens inklusionskriterier var att de patienter som tillfrågades vid ankomst till mottagningarna hade prostatacancer och en partner (n = 34). 12 respondenter deltog. Data analyserades deskriptivt och med Mann- Whitey-test.Resultat: Det visade sig att patienter (n = 6) med prostatacancer har måttlig grad av stressreaktioner i form av undvikande beteende. Partner (n = 6) till patienter med prostatacancer visade sig ha kraftig grad av stressreaktioner i form av påträngande tankar. Det gick inte att se någon signifikant skillnad mellan patienter och partners grad av stress. Majoriteten av deltagarna i studien (n = 11) var säkra på sina svar i enkät IES.Slutsats: Partners tycks ha en högre grad av stress än patienter med prostatacancer, vilket går i linje med liknande studiers resultat. Interventioner för att nå denna grupp och se till dess behov är önskvärt. Fler studier fodras. Det övergripande resultatet tyder på att mätinstrumentet IES är av god kvalitet och mäter det som är avsett att mätas. / Background: Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men in Sweden.Getting a cancer diagnosis is stressful for both the patient and their partner.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of stress responses in the form of avoidance behavior and intrusive thoughts in patients with prostate cancer and their partners. Another purpose was to assure the quality and design of the measuring instrument and its response options.Method: The study had a quantitative cross-sectional design. The data was collected using the questionnaire "Impact of Event Scale" (IES) and by a questionnaire framed according to "The Question and Answer Model" (QAM) to safeguard the quality of the IES. Questionnaires were distributed at surgical and oncology clinics in Uppsala and Falun during the spring of 2013. Inclusion criteria for the study were patients with prostate cancer and their partners (n = 34). 12 respondents participated. The data were analyzed descriptively and with Mann-Whitey test.Results: It was found that patients (n = 6) with prostate cancer have moderate degree of stress responses in the form of avoidance behavior. Partners (n = 6) were found to have strong degree of stress responses in the form of intrusive thoughts. Any significant difference between patients and partners dit not appear. The majority of study participants (n = 11) were confident of their answers in the IES.Conclusion: Partners seem to have a higher level of stress than patients with prostate cancer, which is in line with similar studies' results. Interventions to reach this group and ensure its need is desirable. More studies are lined. The overall results indicate that the measuring instrument IES is of good quality and are measuring the concepts that it indicate to measure.

Trauma and grief often co-occur, however the degree to which these two constructs overlap or are distinguishable is still poorly understood. Homicidally bereaved individuals are exposed to both trauma and loss-related stressors. Previously collected data were used to explore the relationship between trauma and grief components in homicide bereavement distress, and whether homicide bereavement distress was distinguishable from that of other adverse life events. The overarching research question for this study was: Are event and loss related distress distinguishable among siblings bereaved by homicide,1 as measured on the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R)? Data from 67 individuals who lost a sibling to murder while growing up (Murder Group) were compared to data from 80 comparison individuals who grew up with a sibling (Comparison Group), but who had no experience of homicide bereavement. A cross-sectional, iterative survey design using group comparisons was used. Participants in the Murder Group reported significantly higher levels of current subjective distress compared with the Comparison Group. Among the siblings bereaved by the homicide loss of a sibling, event- and loss-related subjective distresses were highly and significantly correlated. In addition, both decreased significantly over time (years), and at similar rates. Preliminary findings from exploratory analyses of the IES-R provide insight into the avoidance, intrusion, and hyperarousal components of subjective distress following homicide loss. Findings will inform understanding of the overlap, and distinguishing features, of concurrent trauma and grief. Implications for theory and empirical research are noted, and recommendations for future research and counselling practice are discussed. / Graduate / 2017-09-13 / simpson9@uvic.ca

Survival after severe burns has improved in recent decades, but there is limited information on the course of recovery after surviving a burn and on factors that can affect recovery. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the occurrence of physical and psychological problems after burns, and to examine the consequences of psychological problems for the clinical management of burn patients. Three groups of consecutive patients who were treated at the Burn Unit at Uppsala University Hospital between 1980 and 2005 were included in the studies. The Burn Specific Health Scale (BSHS) was used for self-report of burn-specific aspects of health. Personality traits and coping strategies as psychological factors during recovery were examined with the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) and the Coping with Burns Questionnaire (CBQ). Presence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress were assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) was used to determine the concurrent validity of the IES-R as a measure of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, the effect of pre-injury psychiatric morbidity on perceived health one year after injury was assessed. Both pruritus and nightmares were common problems after burns; 59% of the individuals in the study reported pruritus and 43% reported nightmares. Neuroticism-related personality traits and avoidant coping strategies were associated with an increased risk of having pruritus or nightmares. The presence of nightmares could be used as a screening tool for high scores in the IES-R. The IES-R was in turn shown to be a good, although overly inclusive, test for the diagnosis of PTSD. Pre-injury psychiatric morbidity predicted perceived outcome in six out of nine burn-specific health domains. These studies show that psychological factors and psychiatric morbidity affect outcome after burns.

This study examined the validity of the South African Police Service (SAPS) multiple stressor intervention. The multiple stressor was developed for members of their specialised units to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, the SAPS multiple stressor intervention lacks scientific evidence to support its possible effectiveness in addressing PTSD. In the current study a deployment and intervention group was compared which employed a pre- test post-test design. The Davidson Trauma Scale and the Revised Impact of Event Scale measured PTSD globally, but also the PTSD dimensions of Intrusion, Avoidance/Numbing, and Hyperarousal. The Wilcoxon signed rank test results indicated that the intervention and deployment was both effective in addressing PTSD although the intervention group revealed the greatest improvement in their overall PTSD scores. The intervention group made significant progress in dealing with all three PTSD symptoms while the deployment group made less progress with their Intrusion and Avoidance/Numbing symptoms, but made significant progress with their Hyperarousal symptoms. The Mann-Whitney u test revealed no significant differences between the post intervention test scores of the two groups, either globally or on the three PTSD dimensions. It appears that deployment was just as effective as the multiple stressor intervention in addressing PTSD. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This study examined the validity of the South African Police Service (SAPS) multiple stressor intervention. The multiple stressor was developed for members of their specialised units to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, the SAPS multiple stressor intervention lacks scientific evidence to support its possible effectiveness in addressing PTSD. In the current study a deployment and intervention group was compared which employed a pre- test post-test design. The Davidson Trauma Scale and the Revised Impact of Event Scale measured PTSD globally, but also the PTSD dimensions of Intrusion, Avoidance/Numbing, and Hyperarousal. The Wilcoxon signed rank test results indicated that the intervention and deployment was both effective in addressing PTSD although the intervention group revealed the greatest improvement in their overall PTSD scores. The intervention group made significant progress in dealing with all three PTSD symptoms while the deployment group made less progress with their Intrusion and Avoidance/Numbing symptoms, but made significant progress with their Hyperarousal symptoms. The Mann-Whitney u test revealed no significant differences between the post intervention test scores of the two groups, either globally or on the three PTSD dimensions. It appears that deployment was just as effective as the multiple stressor intervention in addressing PTSD. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)