Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:50:17.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Reporting of Recent Stress in the Lives of Psychiatric Patients

A Study of 80 Hospitalized Patients and 103 Informants Reporting the Presence or Absence of Specified Types of Stress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Richard W. Hudgens ,
Eli Robins  and
W. Bradford Delong
Richard W. Hudgens
Affiliation:
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
Eli Robins
Affiliation:
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Physicians and patients frequently assume a causal connection between life events and subsequent episodes of psychiatric illness. It seems to ‘make sense’ that an illness which is to some extent manifested by disordered emotions could be caused in part by emotion-producing events. But plausibility alone is no proof of the truth of such an assumption. Realizing this, several investigators have conducted systematic studies of the interrelationships of life events and illnesses, both psychiatric and medical. Such work has been reported by Adamson and Schmale (1), Holmes, et al. (3, 7, 9, 10) Brown and Birley (2) Clayton, et al. (4) Morrison, et al. (11) Murphy, et al. (12, 13) and Hudgens, et al. (8). These authors differed regarding the specific question of whether illnesses may be caused by emotion-producing stress. The first six of the above papers presented positive evidence for such a cause-effect relationship. The last four papers reported that psychiatric patients had significantly more interpersonal conflicts than did well persons or medically ill persons, at least while their psychiatric illnesses were in progress; but the latter authors were unable to find evidence that any type of stress, interpersonal or otherwise, played a causative role in the illnesses. Disagreements among all these workers may be traced to differences in both theoretical approach and methodology.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 117 , Issue 541 , December 1970 , pp. 635 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

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

1 Adamson, J. D., and Schmale, A. H. (1965). ‘Object loss, giving up, and the onset of psychiatric disease.’ Psychosom. Med., 27, 557–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2 Brown, G. W., and Birley, J. L. T. (1968). ‘Crises and life changes and the onset of schizophrenia.’ J. Health & soc. Behav., 9, 203–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 Casey, R. L., Masuda, M., and Holmes, T. H. (1967). ‘Quantitative study of recall of life events.’ J. Psychosom. Res., 11, 239–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4 Clayton, P., Desmarais, L., and Winokur, G. (1968). ‘A study of normal beareavement.’ Amer.J. Psychiat., 125, 168–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 DeLong, W. B., and Robins, E. (1961). ‘The communication of suicidal intent prior to psychiatric hospitalization: A study of 87 patients.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 117, 695–705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Hill, A. B. (1961). Principles of Medical Statistics, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
7 Holmes, T. H., and Rahe, R. H. (1967). ‘The social readjustment rating scale.’ J. psychosom. Res., 11, 213–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8 Hudgens, R. W., Morrison, J. R., and Barchha, R. G. (1967). ‘Life events and onset of primary affective disorders: a study of 40 hospitalized patients and 40 controls.’ Arch. gen. Psychiat., 16, 134–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9 Masuda, M., and Holmes, T. H. (1967). ‘Magnitude estimations of social readjustments.’ J. psychosom. Res., 11, 219–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10 Masuda, M., and Holmes, T. H. (1967). ‘The social readjustment rating scale: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Americans.’ J. psychosom. Res., 11, 227–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Morrison, J. R., Hudgens, R. W., and Barchha, R. G. (1968). ‘Life events and psychiatric illness.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 114, 423–32.Google ScholarPubMed
12 Murphy, G. E., Kuhn, N. O., Christensen, R. F., and Robins, E. (1962). ‘“Life stress” in a normal population: a study of 101 women hospitalized for normal delivery.’ J. nerv. ment. Dis., 134, 150–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Murphy, G. E., Robins, E., Kuhn, N. O., and Christensen, R. F. (1962). ‘Stress, sickness and psychiatric disorder in a ‘normal’ population: a study of 101 young women.’ J. nerv. ment. Dis., 134, 228–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.