The role of uncertainty intolerance in adjusting to long-term physical health conditions: A systematic review

Long-term physical health conditions (LTPHCs) are associated with poorer psychological well-being, quality of life, and longevity. Additionally, individuals with LTPHCs report uncertainty in terms of condition aetiology, course, treatment, and ability to engage in life. An individual’s dispositional ability to tolerate uncertainty—or difficulty to endure the unknown—is termed intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and may play a pivotal role in their adjustment to a LTPHC. Consequently, the current review sought to investigate the relationship between IU and health-related outcomes, including physical symptoms, psychological ramifications, self-management, and treatment adherence in individuals with LTPHCs. A systematic search was conducted for papers published from inception until 27 May 2022 using the databases PsycINFO, PubMed (MEDLINE), CINAHL Plus, PsycARTICLES, and Web of Science. Thirty-one studies (N = 6,201) met the inclusion criteria. Results indicated that higher levels of IU were associated with worse psychological well-being outcomes and poorer quality of life, though impacts on self-management were less clear. With the exception of one study (which looked at IU in children), no differences in IU were observed between patients and healthy controls. Although findings highlight the importance of investigating IU related to LTPHCs, the heterogeneity and limitations of the existing literature preclude definite conclusions. Future longitudinal and experimental research is required to investigate how IU interacts with additional psychological constructs and disease variables to predict individuals’ adjustment to living with a LTPHC

The Moderated Relationship of Appearance Valence on Appearance Self Consciousness: Development and Testing of New Measures of Appearance Schema Components

This paper describes the creation and psychometric properties of two independent measures of aspects of appearance schematicity - appearance salience and valence, assessed by the CARSAL and CARVAL, and their relation to appearance self-consciousness. Five hundred and ninety two participants provided data in a web based task. The results demonstrate the sound psychometric properties of both scales. This was demonstrated by good item total characteristics, good internal reliability of each scale, and the independence of the two scales shown through principal components analysis. Furthermore, the scales show independent and moderated relationships with valid measures of appearance related psychosocial distress. Negatively valenced appearance information was associated with increased appearance self-consciousness. More crucially, the impact of negative valence on appearance self-consciousness was exacerbated by the moderating effect increased salience of appearance. © 2012 Moss, Rosser

The Impact of Thought Speed and Variability on Psychological State and Threat Perception

The speed and variability of thought are purportedly common features of specific psychological states, such as anxiety and mania. The present study explored the proposed independent and combinational influence of these variables upon condition-specific symptoms and affective state. A general population sample was recruited online (N = 263). Participants completed a thought speed and variability manipulation task, inducing a combination of fast/slow and varied/repetitive thought. Change in anxiety and mania symptoms was assessed through direct self-reported symptom levels and indirect, processing bias assessment (threat interpretation). Results indicated that both fast and varied thought independently increased self-reported manic symptoms. Affect was significantly less positive and more negative during slow thought. No change in anxiety symptoms or threat interpretation was found between manipulation conditions. Critically, no evidence for the proposed combinational influence of speed and variability was found. Implications for developing understanding of condition-specific mechanisms and avenues for therapeutic intervention are discussed

Continuing The Search For Nothing: Invisible Higgs Boson Decays And High Luminosity Upgrades At The Atlas Detector

This thesis presents two main projects involving the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider: a search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion, and the design and simulation of an application specific integrated circuit produced for the Inner Tracker Strip detector upgrade project, the Hybrid Controller Chip (HCCStar). The HCCStar will be installed in the ATLAS detector around 2026 for High Luminosity LHC operations, which will see the rate of collisions increased to 200 every 25 ns. Verification of the HCCStar design was performed using cocotb, a Python framework for testing digital logic. The search for invisible Higgs decays was conducted using 139 fb−1 of recorded proton-proton collision data with a center-of-mass energy of \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV collected between 2015 and 2018. Observed (expected) upper limits were set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to an all-invisible final state at B(H \to inv.) = 0.15 (0.11) at a 95% confidence level. No significant disagreement from the Standard Model, which predicts B(H \to inv.) ∼ 1.0 × 10^{-3}, was observed. This result is then reinterpreted in the context of Higgs portal dark matter and compared to various direct detection experiments searching for evidence of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs)

Concerns about medication and medication adherence in patients with chronic pain recruited from general practice

This study examines the concerns and beliefs about medication reported by patients with nonmalignant chronic pain encountered within general practice. Two hundred thirty-nine patients with chronic pain took part in this research. Patients completed the Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire, a measure of patient concerns and beliefs relating to addiction, withdrawal, side effects, mistrust in doctors, perceived need of medication, scrutiny from others, and tolerance. The data revealed that patient concerns and beliefs predicted general medication nonadherence. In addition, concerns were related to the direction of nonadherence: overuse of medication was related to increased perceived need for medication and greater concern over side effects; underuse was related to decreased concerns over withdrawal and increased mistrust in the prescribing doctor. Analyses also indicated that patient attitudes and concerns about medication were more predictive of nonadherence than both level of pain and the reported frequency of experienced side effects. This research contributes to the increasing evidence that patient attitudes and beliefs about pain medication are associated with adherence behavior. Training general practitioners to identify and address these concerns may reduce concerns, improve adherence, and facilitate the doctor-patient relationship

Prospects for polymer therapeutics in Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons and represents a growing health burden to western societies. Like many neurodegenerative disorders the cause is unknown, however, as the pathogenesis becomes ever more elucidated, it is becoming clear that effective delivery is a key issue for new therapeutics. The versatility of today's polymerization techniques allows the synthesis of a wide range of polymer materials which hold great potential to aid in the delivery of small molecules, proteins, genetic material or cells. In this review, we capture the recent advances in polymer based therapeutics of the central nervous system (CNS). We place the advances in historical context and, furthermore, provide future prospects in line with newly discovered advancements in the understanding of PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. This review provides researchers in the field of polymer chemistry and materials science an up-to-date understanding of the requirements placed upon materials designed for use in the CNS aiding the focus of polymer therapeutic design