Post-COVID-19 Cognitive Dysfunction: Methodological Foundations for Prevention and Correction Model

The article introduces a comprehensive review of theoretical and experimental studies in the field of psychophysiological predictors of cognitive impairments in post-COVID-19 patients. The data obtained made it possible to design a model of psychological correction and prevention of post-COVID-19 cognitive dysfunction. This condition affects cognitive, behavioral, and psycho-emotional areas of mental activity. Functional changes involve poor mobility of nervous processes and short attention span, as well as changes in coping behavior and personality characteristics. Unlike older patients, teenagers experience fewer consequences for cardiovascular system and cognitive functions. As for gender differences, men restored their cognitive functions better when they came to grasp with their past experience. For women, recovery was associated with life meaning, planning, and goal setting. The resulting model for the prevention and psychological correction of post-COVID-19 cognitive dysfunction integrated the principles of systemic, information, cognitive, and personality-oriented approaches. It consisted of several structural elements that made it possible to support COVID-19 patients through all treatment stages, i.e., psychodiagnostics, psychocorrection, psychotherapy, and social and lifestyle adaptation

Worries and Fears in the System of Attitudes to Personal Security of Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases

This paper presents the results of studying the psychological aspects of attitudes to personal security of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart defects. The research involved 40 patients aged 45 to 81 years (47.5 % male, 52.5 % female): 20 patients with ischemic heart disease with stable angina and 20 patients with acquired heart defects. In the course of the research conducted with the help of the techniques based on subjective scaling, the attitudes to personal security, including the sources of threats, the consequences of the realization of threats and the assessment of efforts on the counteraction to these threats, posing in the author’s theoretical model as the components of the system of the attitudes to personal security, have been studied. The results show that in the patients with heart diseases, the assessments for a variety of threats, the consequences of their realization and the efforts on the counteraction to them are significantly higher, than in the patients with CAD. In general, the estimates for all the parameters in the group of the patients with CAD were closer to the estimates of healthy people, obtained in the previous studies. In the patients with heart defects, characterized by a greater duration and disease severity, the results of the indicators of the attitudes to personal security, in general, are higher and less differentiated. The conclusion is made that the attitudes to personal security as a part of the system of the psychological attitudes in general, can act as a diagnostic criterion and the indicator of the efficiency of the adaptation in cardiovascular diseases and also can be an independent target of the correctional work in a psychological consultation and psychotherapy of the patients with cardiovascular diseases. In the conclusion the recommendations for the experts who are engaged in the psychological help to the patients with cardiovascular diseases in diagnostic and correctional work with the attitudes to personal security are formulated

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ATTITUDE TO THE DISEASE, COPING BEHAVIOR OF PATIENTS WITH ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE, AND THEIR COGNITIVE STATUS

The paper presents the study of the relationship between the attitude to the disease, coping behavior of patients with coronary heart disease prior to coronary bypass grafting (CABG), and indicators of cognitive status. Bekhterev Institute Personality Questionnaire, Ways of Coping Behavior test by R. Lazarus, Mini-Mental State Examination scale, Frontal Dysfunction Battery test, and Clock- Drawing test were used in the study. The sample included 132 patients. The results of study show that in patients with coronary artery disease prior to CABG the most frequently observed type of attitude to the disease is either the harmonious type or a combination of harmonious and ergopathic types. Confrontation, Distancing, and Problem Solution Planning were identified as the preferred coping strategies. Correlation analysis revealed positive associations between cognitive status and harmonious, ergopathic, and hypochondriac types of attitude to the disease, and negative associations between cognitive status and anosognostic and sensitive types of attitude to the disease. Furthermore, positive correlations between cognitive status and Confrontation, Self-control, Responsibility taking, Problem Solution Planning, Positive revaluation coping strategies and negative correlations between cognitive status and Distancing and Escape-avoidance coping strategies were found. The results of this study will help to improve the level of diagnostic and rehabilitation psychological care of patients with coronary artery disease in preparation for CABG