Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome (MVPS) is a benign psychosomatic cardiac condition that can severely impair one's quality of life. Symptoms targeted in this study include, atypical chest pain, palpitations, anxiety, panic, and shortness of breath.This study was undertaken to examine the effects of a diaphragmatic breathing intervention on the symptoms and underlying mechanism of dysautonomia in a small group of symptomatic females with MVPS. The intervention was based on both yoga theory and cardiorespiratory empirical studies.Seven of eight participant's completed the nine week study using a single subject multiple baseline design across subjects. Participant's began a respiratory retraining intervention, in a weekly staggered pair start, after the first week of baseline measurement. Respiratory training consisted of a four week training in diaphragmatic breathing with home practice three times a day.Autonomic, behavioral, and cognitive systems were assessed. Dependent measures included State and Trait Anxiety, Anxiety Sensitivity, a Symptom Checklist, and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA). RSA is a current noninvasive measure of parasympathetic tone. Data on thoracic and abdominal respiratory predominance, respiration rate, diet, exercise, and adherence were also gathered.Data were analyzed via visual inspection of trends and phase average changes. Treatment effect sizes were calculated for standardized measures to indicate the meaningfulness of change.Two of the seven participants demonstrated a decrease in total symptom frequencies over the course of intervention. One participant demonstrated a weekly progression of lowered state anxiety scores from baseline through intervention. In terms of phase averages, three participants showed a lowering of state anxiety. All seven participants demonstrated lowered trait anxiety scores from pre to post intervention. Two of the seven participants demonstrated a meaningful pre to post intervention decrease in anxiety sensitivity. Respiratory training was effective in stabilizing abdominal respiration. Results regarding vagal tone could not be determined due to unreliable ECG data.In general, results were poor with several inconsistencies. Adherence rates were low and it did not appear that a therapeutic level of change in respiration rate was achieved. Controlling respiration rate may be a critical factor in the therapeutic effectiveness of respiratory retraining interventions. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-07-08Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:33:12Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 meyer_jl_me_botib.pdf: 462690 bytes, checksum: 9ffa5e405830b8134648f0d22679350a (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A endometriose é uma doença inflamatória estrógeno-dependente que afeta de 5 a 10% das mulheres em idade reprodutiva. É caracterizada pela presença de tecido endometrial fora da cavidade uterina e está associada à dismenorreia, dor pélvica e infertilidade. Os níveis de expressão dos receptores nucleares SF1 (fator esteroidogênico 1), estrógeno e progesterona estão alterados no tecido endometriótico comparado ao endométrio normal. Estudos prévios relataram que os genes codificadores dos receptores dos hormônios esteróides ESR1 (receptor de estrógeno 1), ESR2 (receptor de estrógeno 2) e progesterona (PGR) apresentam promotores alternativos que são modulados epigeneticamente por alterações na metilação do DNA, que ocorre preferencialmente nas ilhas CpG presentes nestas regiões. Em células endometriais normais foi observada uma associação entre a presença de metilação e ausência de expressão dos genes SF1 e ESR2 (receptor de estrógeno â) enquanto a perda da metilação foi correlacionada com níveis aumentados de expressão gênica na endometriose peritoneal e ovariana. Com base nestas evidências, o presente trabalho investigou o padrão de metilação dos genes PGR (promotores A e B), ESR1 (promotores A e B) e uma região intragênica ao ESR2. O promotor B do gene PGR e a ilha CpG localizada na 5’UTR do gene ESR2 foram avaliadas em 44 amostras de endometriose profunda intestinal pela técnica de MSP (Methylation-Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction). Em sete destas, também foi possível a investigação na amostra pareada de endométrio eutópico. O padrão de metilação dos promotores A e B do gene ESR1 e o promotor A do gene PGR... / Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease which affects 5 to 10% of women of reproductive age. This disease is characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity and is associated with dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and infertility. Abnormal expression levels of SF1 (steroidogenic factor 1), estrogen and progesterone nuclear receptors were detected in the endometriotic tissue compared to the normal endometrium. Previous studies have reported that genes encoding the steroid hormone receptors ESR1 (estrogen receptor 1), ESR2 (estrogen receptor 2) and progesterone (PGR) are characterized by alternative promoters epigenetically regulated by DNA methylation at CpG islands co-localized in these regions. In normal endometrial cells, it was observed an association between DNA methylation and absence of expression of the genes SF1 and ESR2 (estrogen receptor â), while loss of DNA methylation was correlated with increased expression levels of these genes in peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis. Based on these findings, this study investigated the methylation pattern of the PGR (promoters A and B), ESR1 (promoters A and B) genes and an intragenic region of the gene ESR2. The promoter B of PGR gene and the CpG island mapped at 5 'UTR of the ESR2 gene were evaluated in 44 samples of intestinal deep endometriosis by MSP (methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction). In seven cases, paired samples of eutopic endometrium from the same patients were also evaluated, the methylation patterns of the ESR1 gene (promoters A and B) and the promoter region A of the PGR gene were investigated in 37 samples of endometriosis. The MSP method is based on the DNA modification by sodium bisulfite, which converts unmethylated cytosines to uracil. Subsequently, the target region... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / Hypertension is a current health science priority. This is because it is associated with chronic diseases such as coronary disease. Further it is known to cause end organ damage. It has been clearly established over the last 20 years that antihypertensive drug therapy decreases mortality in those with moderate or severe hypertension. However, the use of drugs for long-term prophylaxis carries with it the risk of long-term side effects. It is for this reason that the need for non-pharmacological treatment of hypertension has risen. The wider acceptance of a more cautious. conservative approach towards drug therapy in general seems necessary. Biobehavioral approaches to the treatment of hypertension have been a 'promising' aItemative or adjunct to drug treatment programmes. However. these approaches have been met with limited success due to the fact that they fail to take into account the effect of family systemic variables as a contributing factor in the causation and maintenance of hypertension. This study investigated the possibility that biopsychosocial techniques offer an added dimension to the biobehavioral approach to the treatment of hypertension by taking into account the familial systemic variables which may contribute to maintaining hypertension. The biopsychosocial techniques may playa significant adjunctive role in permitting control of blood pressure to be maintained without the side-effects seen with the chronic use of medication. An exploratory study was conducted in which a single-subject. AS design was utilized in order to determine whether the added component of a systemically based family intervention would add to decrease or increase the effects obtained with the Fahrion Mayo-protocol. In this context five subjects were consecutively Subjected to health information. muscle relaxation training and biofeedback-assisted training. The systems-based family intervention occurred-throughout the procedure. There was significant decrease across all five subjects of baseline to follow-up systolic blood pressure. This could indicate that the programme as a whole provided an effective decrease in systolic blood pressure. Of particular interest is the possibility that the biofeedback-assisted training intervention could be a placebo intervention associated with the technological nature of the intervention. It is therefore quite clear that the data would be indicative of a non-biofeedback, but relaxation. health information and systemic family intervention to be effective in the treatment of hypertension.

Stress has long been reported to play a prominent role in the onset and course of diabetes mellitus. The present study first reviews the literature addressing the impact of stress on this disease, the physiological mechanisms and pathways the stress response might utilize, and psychotherapeutic tacts taken to date to ameliorate this response. A stress management package was then assembled, comprised of relaxation training, hypnosis, stress inoculation training, and imagery induction.

M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Given the presumed importance of cardiovascular reactivity and the role of anger in the development of hypertension and coronary heart disease, this study is the first to jointly examine three related areas (i.e. gender effects, anger direction preference, and opportunity/no opportunity to aggress following an anger Inducing situation). The present study tested the following hypotheses: a) that cardiovascular reactivity would vary as a function of subjects' gender and direction preference; b) that the rate of cardiovascular recovery would vary as a function of anger direction preference and opportunity/no opportunity to aggress; c) that the subjective feelings of anger after harassment would vary as a function of gender, anger direction preference, and opportunity/no opportunity to aggress; and d) that the evaluation of experimenter's competency and performance would vary as a function of anger preference. 56 females and 49 males executed a math task while being harassed for "poor performance". Next, they were randomly assigned to either write a negative evaluation of the frustrator or to copy a neutral paragraph and then to circle some letters in another paragraph. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured intermittently throughout. Subjects' preferred mode of anger expression (i.e. anger-in versus anger-out) had been previously assessed and cross validated by self as well as peer evaluations. Results indicated that gender was a better predictor than anger direction preference for cardiovascular reactivity to harassment. Complex patterns of recovery were detected with Intriguing sex differences. Results on male diastolic recovery were consistent with a matching hypothesis of anger direction preference but only for anger-out males. In addition, subjective anger for males was related to opportunity/no opportunity conditions, whereas females did not show such a relationship. Female anger-ln's showed quicker systolic recovery than anger-out's. Lastly, the evaluation of experimenter's competency and performance did not vary as a function of anger preference. Therapeutic implications of the findings within the context of anger control as well as trends for future research are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.Ed. (Psychology) / There has been a growing concern about first year students who enter universities without adequate learning and study strategies to meet academic demands. This can result in failure and underachievement. Research subsequently focused on aspects which may negatively Influence the students' choice and use of learning strategies, such as cognitive and affective aspects of the learner. Very little attention has however been given to the influence of illnesses on the learner and his learning strategies. The aim of this study Is to compare first year students who suffer from migraine headaches with students who do not suffer from it. This is done In order to determine whether or not migraine could be considered as an Influencing factor. From the literature study that was undertaken it is clear that migraine headaches, which are classified as a chronic pain illness, can have a substantial impact on the psychological and social well-being of the patient. It can affect a patients cognitive and affective functioning as well as his behaviour. Current research also show that there might be a common neurochemical cause for migraine headaches, affective disorders and certain learning problems. This research offer therapeutic possibilities in all above mentioned areas. The question arose from the literature study of whether migraine headaches could be considered as a factor in the learning strategies of first year students. To answer this question, an empirical study was undertaken, Involving all 1992 first year students at RAU The battery contained the following diagnostic tests: • LASSI (Learning and Study Strategles Inventory). • A health questionnaire. The data was processed In order to find whether a statistically significant correlation exlsted between migraine headaches and learning strategies among the first year students. The empirical study confirmed that migraine headaches could be considered as an Influencing factor In the study and study learnlng strategies of first year students. Due to the limited size of the experimental group. migraine headaches asa possible factor In the learning strategies off first year students can only be applicable to RAU first year students

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The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of depression in adolescent with diabetes (type 1), non-insulin dependent diabetics (type 2) and the general adolescent population.

There currently exists a large body of research associating the Type A behavior pattern with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Further, studies in the area of social support and health suggest that an absence of supportive relationships may result in a decreased resistance to disease in general, both physical and psychological. The present study sought to integrate the Type A research and social support literature through a correlational investigation of the relationship between Type A behavior and perceived quality of social support in 46 male subjects undergoing out-patient treatment for symptomatic coronary disease. It was hypothesized that the Type A pattern would show a significant inverse relationship with perceived quality of social support.