Attributionsambiguität, Rumination und Stress in rassistischen Situationen

Everyday racism is an ongoing issue in every part of the world. Ethnic minorities often are disadvantaged, treated poorly and have to live with the negative consequences of racism. One of those consequences could be increased levels of stress. A few studies have shown a significant association between racism and increased stress levels, mainly using cortisol levels as indicator. We want to extend these existing results by using only psychological symptoms of stress, such as anger and sadness, stated by participants themselves. We also want to investigate the role of rumination as an independent variable mediating the association between racist discrimination and stress. We also believe that the severity of the emotions might differentiate depending on the kind of racism perceived by individuals: When attributional ambiguity is involved in racist situations, stigmatized group members are unsure about the motives of other people’s negative treatment towards them. This ambiguity might trigger stronger emotional reactions than situations without ambiguity would. Finally, especially for situations with attributional ambiguity, we hypothesize that rumination plays a crucial part in causing stress symptoms. The affected stigmatized group members are left in a state of confusion, as they are not sure about the aggressors’ motives. They might even get insecure about themselves and ruminate about whether they were doing something socially unacceptable which could have led to the negative treatment. The aim of the present study is to test how attributionally ambiguous situations increase ruminative thoughts, which in consequence leads to increased stress symptoms

Laparoscopic Management of Acute Pancreatitis Secondary to Rapunzel Syndrome

A 17-year-old girl presented with bilious vomiting and abdominal pain to the surgery department. The history was positive for trichotillomania and trichophagia. A CT scan showed a mass in the stomach, which was highly suspicious for a gastric bezoar. Drooping parts of the bezoar caused a duodenal obstruction with secondary acute pancreatitis. The bezoar was removed via a laparoscopically performed gastrotomy

Racist discrimination leads to stress – The role of attributional ambiguity and rumination

Everyday racism is an ongoing issue in every part of the world. Ethnic minorities often are disadvantaged, treated poorly and have to live with the negative consequences of racism. One of those consequences could be increased levels of stress. A few studies have shown a significant association between racism and increased stress levels, mainly using cortisol levels as indicator. We want to extend these existing results by using only psychological symptoms of stress, such as anger and sadness, stated by participants themselves. We also want to investigate the role of rumination as an independent variable mediating the association between racist discrimination and stress. We also believe that the severity of the emotions might differ depending on the kind of racism perceived by individuals: When attributional ambiguity is involved in racist situations, stigmatized group members are unsure about the motives of other people’s negative treatment towards them. This ambiguity might trigger stronger emotional reactions than situations without ambiguity would. Finally, especially for situations with attributional ambiguity, we hypothesize that rumination plays a crucial part in causing stress symptoms. The affected stigmatized group members are left in a state of confusion, as they are not sure about the aggressors’ motives. They might even get insecure about themselves and ruminate about whether they were doing something socially unacceptable which could have led to the negative treatment. The aim of the present study is to test how attributionally ambiguous situations (compared to unambiguous situations) increase ruminative thoughts, which in consequence might lead to increased stress symptoms. Furthermore, some studies suggest that, depending on the occurrence of attributional ambiguity or not, primary experienced negative emotions might vary. Due to the high uncertainty regarding one's own judgment, it is possible that minority groups experiencing situations involving high attributional ambiguity in a racial context, may perceive greater sadness as opposed to anger. Comparing that to situations without attributional ambiguity, it is therefore conceivable that minorities may experience greater anger rather than sadness due to the clarity of the situation. Therefore, in addition to investigating stress symptoms, another aim in the present study is to determine whether such a difference in the occurrence of sadness or anger exists

Krankenhausmedizinische Interventionen in der neurologischen Anschlussrehabilitation

Treatment in hospitals differs from treatment in rehabilitation centers from a legal perspective because German law mandates that in hospitals physicians and other qualified personnel must be on duty at all times. This is not required for inpatient rehabilitation centers. Since this Act was passed more than 30 years ago, more acute medical interventions are now carried out and the number of older people in the population has increased. As a result patients are nowadays older, more multimorbid and therefore have a greater risk for medical complications. This is especially true for postacute neurological care. For this reason, the original legal framework for neurological rehabilitation treatment has become questionable. Therefore, we prospectively tested how often patients in inpatient neurorehabilitation suffer from complications that require immediate attention by qualified personnel. In 759 patients observed over a period of 6 months we found 602 complications requiring immediate interventions by physicians (e.g. falls, urinary tract infections, other forms of fever, diarrhea associated with Clostridium difficile, pneumonia, respiratory insufficiency, sepsis, epileptic seizures and arrhythmia). On average at least three acute care interventions occurred per day at the facility examined. We conclude that neurological inpatient rehabilitation has outgrown its legal foundations and now incorporates hospital care

Paraneoplastischer subakut kutaner Lupus erythematodes

Subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE) is a subtype of cutaneous lupus erythematosus characterized by high photosensitivity, the occurrence of annular or papulosquamous skin lesions located in body regions exposed to UV light, the presence of anti-Ro/SS‑A antibodies, and mild systemic involvement, such as arthralgia and myalgia. Similar to other subtypes of cutaneous lupus erythematosus, certain trigger factors exist for the development of SCLE, such as exposure to UV light, cigarette smoking and drugs. Rheumatic diseases, such as dermatomyositis, have been known as paraneoplastic syndromes for a long time. In recent years, there has been an accumulation of publications on the association of SCLE with malignant diseases. This article reports the case of a 78-year-old female patient who was diagnosed with the concomitant development of SCLE and gastric carcinoma. In all older patients with SCLE, patients with widespread skin affection outside the UV-exposed body areas or patients with B‑symptoms, the presence of a paraneoplastic SCLE should be considered and appropriate diagnostic steps should be initiated to screen for an associated neoplastic disease