Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:51:51.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The prognostic significance of psychological factors in the management of chronic bronchitis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Brenda M. Rutter
Brenda M. Rutter*
Affiliation:
Oxford Rehabilitation Research Unit, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Oxford
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Brenda M. Rutter, Department of Psychology, Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Eighty-three chronic obstructive bronchitic patients were psychologically assessed before being randomly allocated to 1 of 3 management regimes. The following measures were taken: psychiatric disturbance, personality, social-desirability response set, vocabulary, expectations about treatment, attitudes and beliefs about bronchitis, effect of patient's bronchitis on the family, work, self, physical exercise, smoking, and general health. Outcome was assessed after one month and again one year later, and the measures included physiological tests of lung functioning, an exercise tolerance test, reported symptoms, time off work, drop-out, and death.

Contrary to expectations, it was found that psychological variables had some prognostic significance for outcome assessed by medical measures of illness severity. More important was the finding that, in bronchitics under retiring age, weeks off work during the year of the study could be predicted by psychological variables but not by physiological measures of illness severity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , February 1979 , pp. 63 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bennett, A. E., Garrad, J. & Halil, T. (1970). Chronic disease and disability in the community: a prevalence study. British Medical Journal iii, 762–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, B. H. & Howell, J. B. L. (1969). Disproportionately severe breathlessness in chronic bronchitis. Quarterly Journal of Medicine 38, 277–294.Google Scholar
Crowne, D. P. & Marlowe, D. (1964). The Approval Motive: Studies in Evaluative Dependence. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
De Wolfe, A. S., Barrell, R. P. & Cummings, J. W. (1966). Patient variables in emotional response to hospitalization for physical illness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 30, 68–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DHSS (1974). On the State of the Public Health. The Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the DHSS for the year 1973. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Eber, H. W. (1967). The multivariate analysis of a rehabilitation system: cross-validation and extension. Multivariate Behavioural Research 2, 477–485.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1964). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). University of London Press: London.Google Scholar
Faulkner, M. A. L. (1969). The psychiatric status of patients with chronic bronchitis. M.Phil. (Psych.) dissertation: University of London.Google Scholar
Feintuch, A. (1955). Improving the employability and attitudes of ‘difficult to place’ persons. Psychological Monographs, General and Applied 69, 1–20.Google Scholar
Fishbein, M. & Raven, B. H. (1962). The AB scales: an operational definition of belief and attitude. In Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement (ed. Fishbein, M.), pp. 257–267. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Fletcher, C., Peto, R., Tinker, C. & Speizer, F. (1976). The Natural History of Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysoma. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Fogel, M. L. & Rosillo, R. H. (1969). Correlation of psychologic variables and progress in physical rehabilitation. II. Motivation, attitudes, and flexibility of goals. Diseases of the Nervous System 30, 593–601.Google Scholar
Fogel, M. L. & Rosillo, R. H. (1971). Correlation of psychologic variables and progress in physical rehabilitation. III. Ego functions and defensive and adaptive mechanisms. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 52, 15–21.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Maudsley Monograph no. 21. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Litman, J. T. (1962). Self conception and physical rehabilitation. In Human Behaviour and Social Processes (ed. Rose, A. M.), pp. 550–574. Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston.Google Scholar
McDaniel, J. W. (1967). Relation of subjective probability estimates to patient progress. In Physical Disability and Human Behaviour (ed. McDaniel, J. W.), pp. 146–148. Pergamon Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Medical Research Council (1966). Questionary on the epidemiology of bronchitis. Lancet ii, 1369.Google Scholar
Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. J. & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1957). The Measurement of Meaning. University of Illinois Press: Urbana, Ill.Google Scholar
Oswald, N. C., Waller, R. E. & Drinkwater, J. (1970). Relationship between breathlessness and anxiety in asthma and bronchitis: a comparative study. British Medical Journal ii, 14–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosillo, R. H. & Fogel, M. L. (1970). Correlation of psychologic variables and progress in physical rehabilitation. I. Degree of disability and denial of illness. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 51, 227–233.Google ScholarPubMed
Rosillo, R. H., Fogel, M. L. & Freedman, K. (1971). Affect levels and improvement in physical rehabilitation. Journal of Chronic Diseases 24, 651–660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, B. M. (1977). Some psychological concomitants of chronic bronchitis. Psychological Medicine 7, 459–464.Google Scholar
SPSS (1970). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. McGraw-Hill: London.Google Scholar
Vignos, P. J., Thompson, H. M., Katz, S., Moskowitz, R. W., Fink, S. & Suec, K. H. (1972). Comprehensive care and psychosocial factors in rehabilitation in chronic rheumatoid arthritis: a controlled study. Journal of Chronic Diseases 25, 457–467.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1955). Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The Psychological Corporation: New York.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1965). Social and psychological aspects of rehabilitation of the disabled in the UK. Rehabilitation 53, 11–21.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965). A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry 12, 63–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed