Background: Worldwide 5.8 million people die each year and 45 million are moderately or severely disabled following physical trauma making physical trauma responsible annually for 10% of deaths and 16% of all disabilities. Psychiatric symptoms are common in trauma survivors. It is important to recognize these symptoms early and to identify interventions that will improve treatment outcomes and quality of life of survivors. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the factors that contribute to the development of psychiatric symptoms among physical trauma survivors. Method: A prospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted in which a total of 162 physical trauma patients were enrolled shortly after admission to the University Teaching Hospital surgical wards and followed up for a period of 12 weeks. Enrolled physical trauma survivors underwent periodic psychiatric evaluation at enrollment, at four weeks post enrollment and at twelve weeks post enrollment. The main outcomes were measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, a psychological tool that is used to screen for psychiatric symptoms. Pearson correlation analyses were used to explore factors that contributed to development of psychiatric symptoms. Results: Overall, 93.7% of the participants had significant mental health symptoms on enrollment. This decreased to 29.4% at 12 weeks post enrollment. The common psychiatric symptoms noted were anxiety, depression, somatization, guilt, and suicidality. The factors affecting the development of psychiatric symptoms identified in this study were the age and sex of participants, the presence of social support, the mechanism of injury and the severity of injury. Conclusion: Psychiatric symptoms are quite common in physical trauma survivors affecting upto 29.4% of survivors at 12 weeks post trauma. The main factors contributing to the development of psychiatric symptoms include age and gender of individual, the presence of social support, the mechanism of trauma and the severity of trauma.
Perseverance to accomplish long-term goals is a crucial determinant for success in life. Previous studies elicited self-reported perseverance, also known as grit, using the eponymous survey scale (Grit-S). In a novel lab experiment, we introduce a straight-forward behavioral measure of grit. Participants work on an anagram solving task where grit is quantified as the decision to continue working hard despite failure and challenges. We find that the survey measure of grit is significantly correlated with our behavioral measure. In a further treatment, we test whether individuals look at their peers’ behavior to motivate themselves to endure in the anagram solving task. We find that the presence of peers increase their observers’ perseverance, while being observed does not significantly alter behavior. In a third treatment, we investigate the motives to self-select into the role of an observing participant or that of a participant that is observed and which kind of peers individuals deliberately choose. Our findings provide novel insights
I developed the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP: McCullough, 1984, 2000, 2006, 2015, 2019) to specifically treat Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD) (APA, 2013). CBASP is an interpersonal model of psychotherapy, and it has achieved empirically validated status in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. After personally treating over 400 PDD patients, participating as Principal Investigator in four national randomized clinical trials enlisting 2200 PDD outpatients, and training/supervising hundreds of professionals to administer CBASP, I wanted to write a non-research study article1 discussing the optimal therapist role characteristics of CBASP professionals. The paper is written from the perspective of the originator of CBASP.
