Spiritual coping within medical professions: A psychometric analysis of the Numinous Motivations Inventory short form.

AIM: To examine the psychometric properties of a short form version of the Numinous Motivation Inventory (NMI) for use with healthcare providers in measuring their existential engagement with life and to assess its relationship with spiritual coping and emotional dysphoria. DESIGN: Correlational and psychometric study. METHOD: Data were collected from June to December 2022. Participants included 102 physicians, recruited from across the United States. Qualtrics was utilized to collect data, and they were evaluated with the NMI short form, Spiritual Coping Questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scale (DASS-21). RESULTS: Obtained fit statistics from structural equation modelling analysis indicated close fit of the NMI short form with the original model. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated the value of the NMI as a predictor of negative affect independent of spiritual coping. The NMI did not interact with Spiritual Coping, which was independent of negative affect. CONCLUSIONS: The Numinous represents an important aspect of physicians' coping. The constructs can be utilized in training and clinical settings as a valuable and easy-to-use metric for promoting and assessing wellness. The implications of these findings and the value of the NMI were discussed. IMPACT: An understanding of existential drivers can equip one to cope with the stressors of healthcare. The NMI short form has the capability to explore an individual's existential drivers through the understanding of three domains. REPORTING METHOD: Adhered to proper EQUATOR guidelines (GRRAS). PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

I've seen enough! Prolonged and repeated exposure to disgusting stimuli increases oculomotor avoidance.

Disgust motivates avoidance of stimuli associated with pathogens. Although disgust primarily inhibits oral and epidermal contact, it may also inhibit perceptual contact, particularly given the outsize role of sensory qualities in eliciting disgust. To examine perceptual avoidance of disgust, we presented images of bodily products or spoiled food paired with neutral images for 12-s trials and recorded eye movements (Experiment 1; N = 127). We found that, overall, these disgusting images were not visually avoided compared to neutral images. However, viewing of disgusting images decreased with prolonged (within-trial) and repeated (between-trial) exposure, and these trends were predicted by self-reported disgust to the images. In Experiment 2 (N = 84), we replicated Experiment 1 with a novel set of disgusting images, as well as other unpleasant image categories (suicide, threat) and pleasant images. We found that disgusting stimuli were viewed less than the other unpleasant image categories, and we again found that viewing of disgusting images decreased with prolonged and repeated exposure. Further, we replicated the finding that disgust ratings predicted decreasing viewing of disgusting images, but only for prolonged exposure (within-trial). Unexpectedly, we found that disgust ratings predicted a similar pattern of decreasing viewing for the suicide and threat images as well. These findings suggest that disgust inhibits perceptual contact, but in competition with motivational processes that steer attention toward pathogen threats. We discuss the implications for measuring disgust with eye tracking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Alpha- and beta- adrenergic receptors regulate inflammatory responses to acute and chronic sleep fragmentation in mice.

Sleep is a recuperative process, and its dysregulation has cognitive, metabolic, and immunological effects that are largely deleterious to human health. Epidemiological and empirical studies have suggested that sleep fragmentation (SF) as result of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and other sleep abnormalities leads to pronounced inflammatory responses, which are influenced by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms contributing to SNS regulation of SF-induced inflammation are not fully understood. To assess the effects of the SNS upon inflammatory responses to SF, C57BL/6j female mice were placed in automated SF chambers with horizontally moving bars across the bottom of each cage at specified intervals to disrupt sleep. Mice were first subjected to either control (no bar movement), acute sleep fragmentation (ASF), or chronic sleep fragmentation (CSF) on a 12:12-h light/dark schedule. ASF involved a bar sweep every 120 s for 24 h, whereas CSF involved a bar sweep every 120 s for 12 h (during 12 L; resting period) over a period of 4 weeks. After exposure to these conditions, mice received an intraperitoneal injection of either phentolamine (5 mg/kg BW; an α-adrenergic receptor blocker), propranolol (5 mg/kg BW; a ß-adrenergic receptor blocker), or vehicle (saline). Serum corticosterone concentration, brain and peripheral cytokine (IL1ß, TNFα, and TGFß) mRNA expression, and body mass were assessed. ASF and CSF significantly elevated serum corticosterone concentrations as well as cytokine mRNA expression levels compared with controls, and mice subjected to CSF had decreased body mass relative to controls. Mice subjected to CSF and treated with phentolamine or propranolol had a greater propensity for a decrease in cytokine gene expression compared with ASF, but effects were tissue-specific. Taken together, these results suggest that both α- and ß-adrenergic receptors contribute to the SNS mediation of inflammatory responses, and adrenergic antagonists may effectively mitigate tissue-specific SF-mediated inflammation.

Evaluation of a patient self-stratification methodology to identify those in need of shielding during COVID-19.

The logistical challenges of rapidly and accurately identifying those patients who needed to shield during the COVID-19 pandemic were unprecedented. We report our experiences of meeting this challenge for >9,000 patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease at our centre, incorporating an element of guided patient self-stratification. Our results indicate that patients are able to stratify their own risk accurately using the BSR COVID-19 risk stratification guidance.