Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Psychogenic Cough in Children : a case series

Introduction: Cough is the most common presenting symptom in pediatric primary care settings. Coughcan impact a child's activity level and ability to sleep, play or attend school and is often a source ofparental anxiety. However, an etiology of cough is not always easily identified even after a thoroughsystematic investigation and psychological and neurological conditions are in the differential diagnosis.Psychogenic cough is diagnosed in cases without a clear pulmonary or extrapulmonary etiology in thepresence of some suggestive clinical characteristics and/or an association with psychological issue.Psychogenic cough has been reported to be the second most common cause of chronic cough in children ofage 6-16 years.Methodology: The present paper highlights four case reports of children who presented with symptoms ofpsychogenic cough in the OPD of CNBC hospital, Delhi.The presenting nature of the symptoms alongwith the underlying psychological factors have been discussed. Cognitive Behavioural techniques likedistraction and cognitive restructuring interventions with the children along with family interventions wereused.Conclusions: All the children showed significant improvement at the end of therapy. Three month followup showed that the results were maintained. Cognitive Behavioural approaches are found to be effective inmanaging psychogenic cough and the present paper highlights the process of cognitive behaviouralmanagement of psychogenic cough in children.Key words: cognitive behavior therapy, cough,

Correlation Studies Between Big Five Personality Traits, Age and Loneliness

Background: This study investigates variables of age; openness to experiences, agreeableness,conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism explained by McCrae and Costa in Big Five theory; andits correlation with loneliness.Methods: Through method of convenience sampling, 15 participants were chosen between age group of 19to 25 years and 15 participants in the age group 40 to 50 years. Big Five Inventory (John, O.P., Srivastava,S.; 1999) and Revised UCLA Loneliness scale, 3rdversion (Russell, D., Peplau, L.A., Cutrona, C.E.; 1980)were used to collect personality dimension scores and loneliness score. Statistical procedure of multipleregression and correlation was used.Results: Results displayed a positive correlation between neuroticism and loneliness for both age groups19 to 25 years and 40 to 50 years. However, there was a negative correlation between conscientiousnessand loneliness for age group 19 to 25 years; and negative correlation between extraversion and lonelinessfor age group 40 to 50 years.Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between certain personality traitsand loneliness for specific age groups

Role Of Culture And Self Esteem On Loneliness In Indians Shifted To USA And Indigenous Indians

Background: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem andloneliness scores in individualistic culture and collectivistic culture.Methods: Through the convenience sampling method, 50 participants chosen were Indians who hadshifted to United States of America and 57 participants chosen were Indigenous Indians. The age group ofthe sample was between 17 to 25 years. They were administered Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, M; 1965)and UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, D, Peplau, L. A.. and Ferguson, M.L.; 1978). On the basis of SelfEsteem scores the participants were divided into groups of two, high self-esteem and low self-esteem andtheir loneliness scores were compared. A two-way ANOVA for Randomized design was used to find ifthere was a significant difference in the loneliness scores of the four groups.Results: Results indicated that participants who had shifted to individualistic culture from collectivisticculture had higher loneliness scores and participants with low self-esteem has higher loneliness score.There was significant interaction effect, which indicated that participants with low self-esteem inindividualistic culture had the highest loneliness scores, however for participants in collectivistic culture,high self-esteem scores was associated with more reported loneliness than participants with low self-esteemscores.Conclusion:It is concluded from this study that in this sample, Indians in USA reported feeling morelonely than Indigenous Indians, while participants with lower self-esteem reported feeling lonelier thanindividuals with high self-esteem, with interaction effect whereby people with high self-esteem actuallyreported feeling more lonely in Indian than people with low self-esteem

Self Efficacy and Spirituality – is there a correlation

Background: Spirituality has been prevalent since the evolution of mankind started. However, the meansof practicing spirituality has changed over time. It is claimed by many that any form of spirituality has apositive profound effect on the individuals in various aspects. This research is based on the role played byspirituality on self efficacy, which is people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce results.Methods: Through method of convenient and purposive sampling, 40 participants both male and femalewere administered with the General Self Efficacy. They were classified as being spiritual or atheist by selfreport method. Whereby, atheist declared non belief in higher power, and spiritual participants reportedbelief in higher power. An exact mode of practicing spirituality was not considered. Groups of spiritualindividuals and atheists were considered equally in terms of the number of males and females. They weregiven the General Self-Efficacy Scale.Results: The result was not significant, which is there is no significant difference between spiritualindividuals and atheists in terms of self efficacy.Conclusion: Spiritual individuals and atheists do not differ in self efficacy while many factors may remainthat determine this relationship

Relationships and Loneliness – an exploratory study

Background: Loneliness is a common problem in relationships. The purpose of the study was to find out ifthere is a relation between loneliness and people in romantic relationship.Methods: Convenient sampling was used to collect data in the age range of 18 to 25 years. Data wascollected from 111 people out of which 37 were in a romantic relationship, 37 had been in a romanticrelationship at least once in their lives and 37 had never ever been in a romantic relationship. Tool used tomeasure loneliness was UCLA loneliness scale.Results: The data was not significant. It was found that the degree of loneliness was lowest in people whowere in a romantic relationship and highest in the people had never been in a romantic relationship whenthe survey was conducted.Conclusion:The results show that the difference between the mean reported loneliness for 3 groups is notsignificant. That is being in relationship, or not being in relationship romantically has no significant impacton feelings of loneliness reported in young adults.