Substance abusers' personality disorders and staff members' emotional reactions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous research has indicated that aggressive behaviour and DSM-IV cluster B personality disorders (PD) may be associated with professionals' emotional reactions to clients, and that cluster C PD may be associated with positive emotional reactions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Staff members recruited from workshops completed a self-report inventory of emotional reactions to patients, the Feeling Word Checklist-58, and substance abusers completed a self-report of DSM-IV personality disorder, the DSM-IV and ICD-10 Personality Disorder Questionnaire. Correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis was used to assess the associations between personality disorders and emotional reations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cluster B disorder features were associated with feeling distance to patients, and cluster C disorder features were associated with feeling helpful towards patients. Cluster A disorders had no significant impact on emotional reactions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings confirm clinical experiences that personality disorder features in patients with substance abuse have an impact on staff members reactions to them. These reactions should be considered in supervision of staff, and in treatment models for patients with co-morbid personality disorders and substance abuse.</p

A bridge between a lonely soul and the surrounding world: A study on existential consequences of being closely related to a person with aphasia

This study illuminates existential consequences of being closely related to a person suffering from aphasia. Seventeen close relatives were interviewed and their narratives were interpreted with inspiration from Ricoeur, Levinas, Husserl, Winnicot, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The emerging interpretations resulted in four themes that illuminate a life characterized by lost freedom, staying, a new form of relationship, and growing strong together with others. An overarching theme suggests that a life together with an aphasic person means being used as a bridge between the aphasic person and the surrounding world. Moreover, it illuminates that a close relative to a person with aphasia is a person who does not leave, despite a heavy burden of lonely responsibility. It is concluded that community services need to fulfill their responsibility of providing support to informal caregivers as suggested by the Swedish lawmakers