[Compassion as a mediator between stressful events and perceived stress in Greek students].

Compassion is closely related with human's survival as a mammal and has been developed through evolution for pain reduction, for forming affiliative bonds and alliances with non kin in order to increase protection and cope with external threats. Compassion seems to influence people's ability to deal with life's adverse situations such as stress and it is linked with lower psychopathology and greater wellbeing. Compassion is closely related to empathy and altruism and it is defined as the recognition of the pain of the self or others' that is accompanied with the will to take action in order to relieve the person from pain. Its main features are kindness instead of self-judgment and indifference, the recognition of common humanity instead of the feeling of separation and mindfulness when facing adverse conditions instead of over-identification with one's pain or disengagement with the pain of others. According to the biopsychosocial approach, stress can be defined by three dimensions such as the cause or stressful factors that can be major life events or daily hassles, the perception of stress that is manifested through cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions and the physiological response for achieving homeostasis. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of compassion for self and others in the occurrence of stressful events and levels of perceived stress in students. Participants were 280 undergraduate students from two Greek universities. Results indicated that students who had experienced a greater amount of stressful events during the past year reported having higher levels of perceived stress and that higher self-compassion was correlated with less perceived stress. Moreover, the adverse effect of stressful events on perceived stress was partially explained by the mediating role of self-compassion. Students who reported more stressful events showed higher compassion for others in opposition to compassion towards themselves but compassion for others was not significantly correlated with perceived stress. Since compassion is not considered being a fixed personality trait but it is seen as a capacity that can be developed by appropriate training it was suggested that enhancing self-compassion's stress buffering properties can be useful for dealing with stressful events and reducing stress responses. Moeover, it was suggested that it is interesting to explore the relationship between compassion for others and positive characteristics such as sense of coherence, quality of life and social support that may enhance stress resilience indirectly. The above findings imply that it is important to investigate further the role of compassion in coping with stress in qualitative, longitudinal studies as well as randomized control trials. Compassion may be an alternative mechanism for coping with stressful events and stress, other than fight or flight that has been shaped by evolution.

A HEALth Promotion and STRESS Management Program (HEAL-STRESS study) for prehypertensive and hypertensive patients: a quasi-experimental study in Greece.

Current hypertension guidelines advocate strategies encouraging healthy lifestyle behaviours. So far, there is a paucity of studies for the efficacy of such multifaceted programmes. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an 8-week health-promotion programme for lowering blood pressure (BP) in prehypertensive and hypertensive patients in the community. This was a quasi-experimental study using wait-list controls of 548 patients. The intervention group was administered with an 8-week health-promotion intervention. Measurements included home BP, smoking, body mass index (BMI), perceived stress, depression, anxiety and Health Locus of Control. After adjusting for confounders, the intervention group had a significant reduction in both systolic BP (SBP; mean -2.62 mm Hg, 95% confidence interval (CI): -1.29 to -3.96) and diastolic BP (DBP; mean -1.0, 95% CI: -0.93 to -1.9) compared with controls. In all, 14.9% of patients in the intervention group had >10 mm Hg reduction in SBP vs 4.4% in the control group (P<0.001, numbers needed to treat (NNT)=10). With regards to DBP, 21.7% of patients in the intervention group had >5 mm Hg reduction vs 12.5% in the control group (P=0.01, NNT=11). In terms of effect size, moderate-to-large improvements of BMI, perceived stress, anxiety, depression, external and chance Health Locus of Control were recorded. Changes in SBP and DBP were attributed to BMI and depressive symptom reductions, respectively. Comprehensive non-pharmaceutical programmes for BP management are strongly encouraged. Their long-term benefits on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality remain to be established by future research.

Validation of the Greek version of Mini Tinnitus Questionnaire as a Brief Screening Test for Assessment of Tinnitus-related Distress: our experience in 301 adult patients.

OBJECTIVES: Validation of the Greek version of Mini Tinnitus Questionnaire (Mini-TQ-GR) as a Brief Screening Test for Assessment of Tinnitus-related Distress. DESIGN: Questionnaire study. SETTING: 401 General Military Hospital of Athens/Department of Audiology - Neurootology, Athens, Greece. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred and one participants have anonymously completed the Mini-TQ-GR, comparing it to the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS 14) and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MΗLoC) from November 2013 until May 2014. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Mini-TQ-GR, compared to PSS 14 and MΗLoC. RESULTS: Factor analysis, has shown that the Mini-TQ-GR includes three main factors (Distress, Health pre-occupation and Depression), which explains the 59.05% of the total variance. The Cronbach alpha index was 0.865 approaching the respective reliability factor of the original validation (0.9). The test-retest correlation (intraclass correlation coefficient) was 0.9 (P < 0.01), close to the results of the original study (0.89). We found a positive correlation between tinnitus and perceived stress (r = 0.349**) and negative correlation between tinnitus and external locus of control (r = -0.124*, r = -0.198**) (chance, others). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the Mini-TQ-GR has good internal consistency and reliability becoming a useful, validated measurement tool for tinnitus-induced distress.

An 8-week stress management program in pathological gamblers: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Stress plays a major role at the onset and relapse of pathological gambling (PG), but at the same time it can also be the aftermath of gambling behavior, thus revealing a reciprocal relationship. Although the role of stress has been well-documented, there is a paucity of studies investigating the effect of an adjunctive stress management program on PG. In this 8-week parallel randomized waitlist controlled trial pathological gamblers, already in the gamblers anonymous (GA) group, were assigned randomly in two groups, with the intervention group (n = 22) receiving an additional stress management program (consisting of education on diet and exercise, stress coping methods, relaxation breathing -RB- and progressive muscle relaxation -PMR). Self-reported measures were used in order to evaluate stress, depression, anxiety, sleep quality/disturbances, life-satisfaction and daily routine. The statistical analyses for the between group differences concerning the main psychosocial study outcomes revealed a statistically significant amelioration of stress, depression, anxiety symptoms and an increase of life-satisfaction and a better daily routine in participants of the intervention group. We hope that these will encourage researchers and clinicians to adopt stress management in their future work.

High cognitive outcome in an adolescent with mut- methylmalonic acidemia.

Methylmalonic acidemia is an inborn error of metabolism known to be a cause of ketoacidosis and mental retardation. The less severe mut(-) form of the disorder, however, has been described with only mild to moderate cognitive deficits or, rarely, with normal neurodevelopment in asymptomatic cases. Nevertheless, there has been no detailed documentation of long-term neuropsychological function in the mut(-) form and relatively few IQ scores. We performed longitudinal developmental and neuropsychological assessments on a girl with symptomatic mut(-) methylmalonic acidemia whose biochemical abnormalities were in the moderately severe range and who had had recurrent episodes of ketoacidosis. At almost 12 years of age, her full scale IQ on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, third edition, was 129 with very superior and superior scores on nonverbal and verbal skills, respectively. On the National Achievement Test she scored above the 99th percentile in the Basic Battery and is considered to be a gifted student. This outcome suggests that the spectrum of cognitive attainment in mut(-) methylmalonic acidemia is wide and that even a moderate degree of biochemical severity with ketoacidotic episodes may not result in cognitive deficit. Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 96:192-195, 2000.

Personality profiles of mothers of children with mitochondrial disorders.

Mothers of children with mitochondrial disorders, inherited neurodegenerative diseases, are faced with a frightening diagnosis and numerous demands associated with caring for these children. The psychological profile of mothers whose children carry a mitochondrial disorder is unknown. Forty-two mothers of children with mitochondrial disorders were interviewed and administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--Second Edition (MMPI-2). Fifty-six per cent of the mothers had scores in the pathological range on three or more scales, most notably on Hypochondriasis, Hysteria and Paranoia scales. The MMPI-2 profile is associated with situational anxiety and stress or may be associated with carrier status characteristics. Whatever the cause, future studies need to determine whether supportive services can reduce the level of anxiety and stress in mothers of children with these disorders.

Reversal of severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and excellent neuropsychologic outcome in very-long-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency.

Very-long-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase (VLCAD) deficiency is a disorder of fatty acid beta oxidation that reportedly has high rates of morbidity and mortality. We describe the outcome of a 5-year-old girl with VLCAD deficiency who was first seen at 5 months of age with severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, hepatomegaly, encephalopathy, and hypotonia. Biochemical studies indicated VLCAD deficiency caused by a stable yet inactive enzyme. Molecular genetic analysis of her VLCAD gene revealed a T1372C (F458L) missense mutation and a 1668 ACAG 1669 splice site mutation. After initial treatment with intravenous glucose and carnitine, the patient has thrived on a low-fat diet supplemented with medium-chain triglyceride oil and carnitine and avoidance of fasting. Her ventricular hypertrophy resolved significantly over 1 year, and cognitively, she is in the superior range for age. Clinical recognition of VLCAD deficiency is important because it is one of the few directly treatable causes of cardiomyopathy in children.

Hydroxyprolinemia: comparison of a patient and her unaffected twin sister.

Hydroxyproline is a major constituent of collagen. It accumulates as the free imino acid in a rarely reported inborn error of metabolism known as hydroxyprolinemia. This metabolic disorder was initially described in association with mental retardation, but subsequent identification in clinically normal individuals has led to the supposition that it is benign. The possibility that hydroxyprolinemia might have an adverse effect on cognitive development without producing mental retardation has not been determined nor has its incidence been reported. We prospectively studied a girl with untreated hydroxyprolinemia identified by routine neonatal urine screening, the only infant found among 1 million screened, and compared her with her unaffected dizygotic twin sister. Plasma and urine hydroxyproline were increased approximately 10-fold and 100-fold, respectively, in the affected twin. Both girls have had normal growth, with the affected twin taller than her sister. On neuropsychologic testing, the affected twin was within normal limits, performing slightly better than her sister on verbal and achievement tests but less well on visual perceptual testing. It appears that hydroxyprolinemia has caused no physical or general cognitive deficits. The possibility of an effect on visual perceptual functioning, although unlikely, cannot be eliminated.