Jolanta Walczewska

Effect of trauma onset on personality traits of politically persecuted victims

BackgroundThe hypothesis that traumatic experiences in early childhood impact personality formation and psychopathology is well known in psychology and psychiatry, but this is difficult to verify statistically in methodological terms. The aim of this study, conducted with politically persecuted Poles, was to establish the influence of the time when trauma is experienced on the development of psychopathological symptoms.MethodsThe subjects were divided into two groups: those who had experienced trauma before age five (group 1) and those who experienced trauma at an older age (group 2). Subjects in both groups suffered from chronic untreated post-traumatic stress disorder. In order to test the research hypothesis, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 profiles of both groups were compared using Student’s t-test, and the Mann–Whitney U-test.ResultsStatistically significant between-group differences were found for the F validity scale and the following clinical scales: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Psychopathic deviate, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, and Social introversion. All the significantly different scores were higher in the group traumatized in early childhood. People exposed to trauma under age five had profiles similar to those traumatized after age five, but they experienced their symptoms more intensely.ConclusionsOf clinical significance, higher scores on the psychasthenia, schizophrenia, and social introversion scales, especially on the psychopathic deviate scale, indicated pathology only in the early childhood trauma group. Taken together, these symptoms lead to withdrawal and hindrance of social functioning. This outcome confirms the hypothesis of the influence of various early childhood factors (such as trauma) on personality formation and personality traits in adulthood.

Are all the former Siberian deportees with posttraumatic stress disorder patients at risk for unsuccessful aging

Multimorbidity was shown to be related to various unfavorable health‐related outcomes and unsuccessful aging. In Poland, mass deportation of Polish citizens from the Soviet‐ occupied regions deep into the isolated territories of the former Soviet Union, took place from February 1940 to June 1946. The deportees and their children, frequently born on exile, were exposed to chronic stress, psychological and physical violence, extreme climate conditions, abject poverty and famine, infectious and parasitic diseases, and arduous physical labor, all in all, together resulting in cachexia and a wide range of psychiatric and medical stress‐related disorders. However, there has been a limited data on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its health and emotional consequences in those who had been deported due to political reasons, as most of the available research has been focused on war veterans or former Nazi camp prisoners. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of multimorbidity and geriatric impairments in the group of the older Polish deportees to the former Soviet Union who still suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder. The presented results are a part of research on PTSD in the elderly people who or whose relatives had been persecuted for political reasons, and who had been deported to the remote regions of the former Soviet Union in their childhood, or were born in Siberia or Kazakhstan as a child of the deportees; the details of the project were described elsewhere. In brief, the respondents took part in medical (geriatric and psychiatric) and psychological assessment. Posttraumatic stress disorder was diagnosed by a psychiatrist according to the criteria of the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. The geriatric part included history taking with the use of a detailed questionnaire (incl. questions about 15 chronic diseases), review of past medical records and currently taken drugs, physical examination, and geriatric assessment, conducted by the medical doctors trained in geriatrics. Multimorbidity was defined as the simultaneous presence of two or more health conditions in an individual. Questions about history of chronic pain, falls, dizziness, hearing or vision impairment, memory complaints, and functional dependence were included in the questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were diagnosed according to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression; frailty syndrome with the use of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging

Posttrauma Symptoms in Poles Persecuted for Political Reasons, 1939–1968

This study aimed to examine the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in individuals suffering from chronic untreated PTSD. The study population consisted of 329 politically persecuted Poles who had never been treated for PTSD. The severity of PTSD symptoms was assessed through a psychiatric examination and a Polish version of the civilian Mississippi PTSD Questionnaire. The results from our clinical examination correlated closely with those from the Mississippi PTSD Questionnaire. PTSD symptoms tended to be moderate or mild in severity. Politically persecuted people may demonstrate the full spectrum of posttraumatic symptoms decades after the trauma.

Symptoms of cardiovascular diseases in the course of mental disorders

Summary: Psychosomatic disorders are extremely common in patients in non-psychiatric departments. It is widely known that in these cases comorbid psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent and that the importance of psychosocial factors is relevant. However, it is still a challenge for both internal medicine and mental health professionals to diagnose and treat them effectively. The need of evidence-based treatment guidelines for clinicians is obvious. As far as it is concerned, DSM-5 has redefined the criteria of somatoform disorders, underlying the importance of incorrect thoughts about symptoms whether organic ethiology. Methods/Design: The aim was to provide an insight into the barriers of diagnosing psychosomatic disorders in cardiology referring to possible psychiatric comorbidity. Over 150 actual abstracts and full text manuscripts were checked. The literature published in English and Polish, mostly in PubMED/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews of past 10 years was studied and compared to the literature of psychoanalytic theory. Disscussion: It is worth to remember, that for high proportion of patients with mental disorders somatic syndrome is the only symptom they report to physicians. Emotion regulation theory, alexithymia theory and desomatization and resomatization theory find it as the effect of unsolved problems with emotions. Moreover, functional neuroimaging studies seem to reveal coherent findings. Based on it, the neurophysilogical model of emotion regulation and the mechanism of cognitive-emotional executive control were described. Accordingly, literature shows that in heart disease patients the incorporation of psychological interventions in healing process significantly reduces mortality and relapse.