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Background: Assessment and treatment of emotional distress during pregnancy show that worries during pregnancy and interpersonal relationships with partners are the important factors determining psychological health. Aims: The present study aimed to investigate the impact of worries during pregnancy, relationship intimacy, and marital satisfaction on anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms in pregnant women, as well as to analyse the mediating effect of relationship intimacy between marital satisfaction and emotional distress. Method: During their second and third trimester of pregnancy, 200 Portuguese women were recruited during childbirth preparation consultations and completed the Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS), the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Scale (PAIR), the Marital Life Areas Satisfaction Evaluation Scale (MLASES), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that being unemployed or on sick leave, being younger, having a history of miscarriage, having more worries during pregnancy, and declaring low-relationship intimacy were the main predictors of emotional distress. Relationship intimacy mediated the relation of marital satisfaction to anxiety and depression symptoms. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of the worries during pregnancy and relationship intimacy in shaping pregnant women's emotional distress, and identifies both as targets of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The Surgical Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) was developed to assess self-reported surgical fear. The availability of a specific instrument for the identification of fears related to surgery will help nurses identify the cause of fear and start the development of specific interventions. Aims To culturally adapt the SFQ to Brazilian Portuguese-speaking people and analyze the psychometric properties of this scale in patients in the pre-operative period. Method A convenience sample of 112 preoperative patients was included in this descriptive cross-sectional study. The convergent construct validity between the SFQ and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was assessed through the Pearson's correlation coefficient. Internal reliability was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha. The discriminant construct validity was investigated through the Student's t-test for male and female. Results The SFQ correlated positively with the HADS (HADS-Anxiety: r=0.51 and p=0.01; HADS-Depression: r=0.33 and p=0.01), providing evidence for its construct validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficients showed satisfactory internal consistency (0.85). There was evidence for discriminant validity in relation to gender (Student's t p<0.05). Limitations and Implications The study used a convenience sample and was conducted at a single institution. This scale can be used in research or in clinical practice to identify surgical fear. Conclusion The SFQ Brazilian version is a valid and reliable instrument to assess the fear of patients who will undergo a surgical procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression and anxiety symptoms in chronic pain are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, and appear highly related to patient’s illness perceptions as well as with marital adjustment. This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of pain variables, marital adjustment and illness perceptions on depression and anxiety in patients with chronic pain. Two hundred patients were recruited from a pain unit in a public hospital in the north of Portugal. Patients completed a questionnaire that assessed illness perceptions (IPQ-Brief), marital adjustment (revised dyadic adjustment scale), depression and anxiety symptoms (hospital anxiety depression scale) and pain variables (pain intensity and pain disability index).Depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with pain intensity, pain-related disability, marital adjustment and illness perceptions. Results from hierarchical regression showed that illness perceptions contributed significantly to depression and anxiety symptoms over and above the effects of pain intensity, pain-related disability and marital adjustment, after controlling for gender. In multivariate analyses, pain intensity, pain-related disability and marital adjustment were uniquely related to depression and anxiety symptoms, whereas specific illness perceptions were uniquely related to depression symptoms (identity, treatment control, emotional response and coherence) and to anxiety symptoms (identity, emotional response and concern). Perceptions of greater symptomatology (identity) and of emotional impact, and lesser perceptions of treatment control and understanding of chronic pain (illness comprehensibility) were significantly associated with increased depression symptoms. Perceptions of greater symptomatology (identity), emotional impact and greater concern were associated with anxiety symptoms. These findings indicate that the contribution of illness perceptions was greater than that made by traditional covariates, and may therefore be a useful basis for future psychological interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Adherence is still an important issue considering new advances in Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) treatment, as automatic positive airway pressure (APAP). The aim of the present study was to identify and explore relationships between identified predictors of adherence, over time. After overnight sleep study and OSA diagnosis and during a six-month APAP treatment period, a total of 153 patients underwent a three time psychological protocol evaluation. Generalized estimating equations were applied to analyzed repeated measurements in the same individuals. Results show that 40% of patients were poorly adherent and 60% were adherent after six months of treatment. The results confirmed a predictive value of age, self-efficacy, decisional balance index and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in APAP adherence. Furthermore, the results revealed an interaction between time and illness cognitive representations, and self-efficacy and family coping, in explaining adherence patterns over time. Therefore, understanding the causality of theoretically derived constructs is crucial to predict the continuity of APAP adherence.