Social job resources as sources of meaningfulness and its effects on nurses’ vigor and emotional exhaustion: a cross-sectional study among spanish nurses

This study investigates the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness among social job resources (i.e., coworkers and supervisor support), vigor, and emotional ex haustion in a nursing context. In spite of progress in under standing which organizational influence affects nurses’ vigor and emotional exhaustion, the psychological mechanisms as sumed to underlie the associations have not been fully ex plored. The sample for this study consisted of 171 nurses from Spanish hospitals (54.4 %) and Primary Care Centers (45.6 %). The mediation model was tested using the bootstrapping procedure. Our findings confirmed that psycho logical meaningfulness fully mediates the impact of social job resources on vigor at work. Moreover, psychological mean ingfulness partially mediated the impact of social job resources on emotional exhaustion. Results suggest that mean ingfulness plays an important role in the connection between job resources, vigor, and emotional exhaustion. The findings contribute to our understanding of the psychological processes that can explain how job resources contribute to the energetic aspect of burnout and engagement among nurses. Providing nurses with more social job resources, such as coworker and supervisor support, could activate their levels of personal meaningfulness and thus enhance their levels of well-being at workThis research was funded by an FPU grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (AP2010-0099) and by a project from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FEM2012-34692

Mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in Huntington's disease human cybrids

We investigated the involvement of mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in Huntington's disease (HD) vs. control (CTR) cybrids, obtained from the fusion of human platelets with mitochondrial DNA-depleted NT2 cells, and further exposed to 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) or staurosporine (STS). Untreated HD cybrids did not exhibit significant modifications in the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes I-IV or in mtDNA sequence variations suggestive of a primary role in mitochondrial susceptibility in the subpopulation of HD carriers studied. However, a slight decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and increased formation of intracellular hydroperoxides was observed in HD cybrids under basal conditions. Furthermore, apoptotic nuclei morphology and a moderate increase in caspase-3 activation, as well as increased levels of superoxide ions and hydroperoxides were observed in HD cybrids upon 3-NP or STS treatment. 3-NP-evoked apoptosis in HD cybrids involved cytochrome c and AIF release from mitochondria, which was associated with mitochondrial Bax translocation. CTR cybrids subjected to 3-NP showed increased mitochondrial Bax and Bim levels and the release of AIF, but not cytochrome c, suggesting a different mode of cell death, linked to the loss of membrane integrity. Additionally, increased mitochondrial Bim and Bak levels, and a slight release of cytochrome c in untreated HD cybrids may help to explain their moderate susceptibility to mitochondrial-dependent apoptosi

Communication in Clinical Practice, the Perspective of Patients with Cancer: Translation of the PACE (Patient Assessment of Cancer Communication Experiences) Questionnaire to European Portuguese

Introduction: Communication in clinical practice is essential to healthcare quality, especially in Oncology. The Patient Assessment of Communication Experiences questionnaire evaluates the perspective of cancer patients towards communication and identifies areas that can be improved. This study consists in its translation and validation to European Portuguese, to identify these areas. Material and methods: We performed a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study. The translation was conducted according to the World Health Organization's guidelines. We applied the questionnaires to a convenience sample, in patients under systemic antineoplastic treatment at the Day Hospital of Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, between January and March 2020. We calculated the Cronbach's Alpha for each phase of care, the bivariate and multiple correlations and, for each question, the percentage of "non applicable" and most positive answers. Results: We had 100 participants. The instrument we obtained ha good internal consistency, but the classification of some questions does not correlate sufficiently with the global opinion about the experiences with communication in the respective phase. The diagnosis phase revealed a lower proportion of positive experiences, particularly in terms of receiving the bad news. Conclusion: This study translates and validates part of the communication assessment instrument PACE to the Portuguese language and elicits the necessity to invest in the phase of diagnosis and disclosure of bad news.ste trabalho não recebeu qualquer tipo de suporte financeiro de nenhuma entidade no domínio público ou privado

Antinociception induced by chronic glucocorticoid treatment is correlated to local modulation of spinal neurotransmitter content

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While acute effects of stress on pain are well described, those produced by chronic stress are still a matter of dispute. Previously we demonstrated that chronic unpredictable stress results in antinociception in the tail-flick test, an effect that is mediated by increased levels of corticosteroids. In the present study, we evaluated nociception in rats after chronic treatment with corticosterone (CORT) and dexamethasone (DEX) in order to discriminate the role of each type of corticosteroid receptors in antinociception.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both experimental groups exhibited a pronounced antinociceptive effect after three weeks of treatment when compared to controls (CONT); however, at four weeks the pain threshold in CORT-treated animals returned to basal levels whereas in DEX-treated rats antinociception was maintained. In order to assess if these differences are associated with altered expression of neuropeptides involved in nociceptive transmission we evaluated the density of substance P (SP), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), somatostatin (SS) and _B2-γ-aminobutiric acid receptors (GABA_B2) expression in the spinal dorsal horn using light density measurements and stereological techniques. After three weeks of treatment the expression of CGRP in the superficial dorsal horn was significantly decreased in both CORT and DEX groups, while GABA_B2was significantly increased; the levels of SP for both experimental groups remained unchanged at this point. At 4 weeks, CGRP and SP are reduced in DEX-treated animals and GABA_B2unchanged, but all changes were restored to CONT levels in CORT-treated animals. The expression of SS remained unaltered throughout the experimental period.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data indicate that corticosteroids modulate nociception since chronic corticosteroid treatment alters the expression of neuropeptides involved in nociceptive transmission at the spinal cord level. As previously observed in some supraspinal areas, the exclusive GR activation resulted in more profound and sustained behavioural and neurochemical changes, than the one observed with a mixed ligand of corticosteroid receptors. These results might be of relevance for the pharmacological management of certain types of chronic pain, in which corticosteroids are used as adjuvant analgesics.</p