(Press-News.org) DETROIT – Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D., a recent graduate from Wayne State University, and her mentor, Lisa J. Rapport, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, found that if traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims feel close to a higher power, it can help them rehabilitate. The study was recently published in Rehabilitation Psychology.
Traumatic brain injury is a disruption of normal brain function after a head injury and affects 1.7 million Americans annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those struggling with the long-term effects of TBI are at a heightened risk for mental and physical problems. Such problems can significantly inhibit rehabilitation outcomes and are therefore important to address in the context of rehabilitation efforts. And when TBI leaves people feeling stressed, less satisfied with life and functionally dependent on others, rehabilitation is the only option.
"Among healthy adults, religion and spirituality have shown strong association with improved life satisfaction and physical and mental health outcomes," said Waldron-Perrine. But research about religion's effect on TBI rehabilitation in particular is lacking.
To fill this void, Waldron-Perrine interviewed and completed neuropsychological tests on 88 individuals diagnosed with TBI victims, most of whom were male, African American Christians. Participants also completed a neuropsychological measure of their cognitive abilities. A significant other of each TBI victim also participated and reported on the injured individual's functional status.
Waldron-Perrine found that most participants who reported higher levels of religious well-being (a connection to a higher power) had better emotional and physical rehabilitation outcomes. But public religious activities or practice and existential well-being – a sense that life has a purpose apart from any religious reference – did not have such an effect influence on rehabilitation outcome.
This "intriguing" finding, she said, may be due to the fact that TBI victims lack full control of their ability to participate in public religious practice. "They often must rely on others for scheduling and transportation to social events, so their public religious participation does not wholly reflect their true use of religious resources," she said.
As expected on the basis of previous studies, social support was related to positive physical and mental rehabilitation results. This, Waldron-Perrine said, is consistent with other research studies linking religious social support to positive health outcomes in other populations. But even when Waldron-Perrine adjusted for social support, religious well-being still stood as a unique and strong predictor of positive health outcomes in TBI patients.
"Individuals cope with the tools available to them, and perhaps especially for those with limited means and few alternatives, religion can take on great power as a psychosocial resource," Waldron-Perrine said.
Waldron-Perrine's doctoral dissertation, completed in Rapport's lab, was the foundation of this study. Waldron-Perrine is now a post-doctoral fellow at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Health Care System and University of Michigan's Department of Psychiatry.
###
Wayne State University is one of the nation's preeminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.
Religion benefits traumatic brain injury victims, Wayne State University research finds
2011-06-28
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Stepped-up vaccine series for hepatitis B is effective during pregnancy
2011-06-28
DALLAS – June 28, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center maternal-fetal specialists have confirmed a potential new protocol to protect pregnant women who are at risk for hepatitis B, a health problem that affects 2 billion people worldwide.
An accelerated hepatitis B vaccination schedule for high-risk pregnant women was found effective and well-tolerated. The findings appear in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
While the normal three-shot regimen of hepatitis B vaccine for adults – given over a six-month period – has long been recommended for pregnant women, that ...
The good, the bad and the ugly: The many roles of c-JUN in cancer
2011-06-28
The c-JUN protein was initially described in the late 1980s as the mammalian equivalent of a protein responsible for causing cancer in birds. Intense research in a number of labs has subsequently led to a basic understanding of how the protein works. c-JUN is a transcription factor that modifies (phosphorylates) key regulatory proteins in the cell, thereby activating or deactivating them and leading to unregulated cell division and hence cancer. It has also become clear that c-JUN acts not on its own but in conjunction with an array of further proteins that modulate ...
Rockin' tortoises: A 150-year-old new species
2011-06-28
A team of researchers investigated a desert tortoise from the Southwest USA and northwestern Mexico. What was thought to be a simple problem in species identification turned out to be a very complex matter. Their investigations required forensic genetics and several other methods. In the end, they found it necessary to describe a new species. More than that, the discovery has very important implications for conservation and the development of the deserts of southern California.
Since the original description of Agassiz's Land Tortoise, scientifically called Gopherus agassizii, ...
Third-Party Consultants Garner Higher Client Satisfaction than Vendors by 20-Plus Percent
2011-06-28
Whether in a leading or supporting role, third-party firms specializing in a vendor's applications implement them more adeptly than the vendor itself for all but one vendor -- often by a wide margin, according to a new KLAS study.
For the report, Clinical Implementation Services: High in Demand But More Specialized in Need, healthcare providers reported contracting out implementation work to 30 different companies, from smaller boutique firms to the software vendors themselves. Every vendor, except for Epic, was outstripped by third-parties specializing in the vendors' ...
Florence & the Machine Play to Sold-Out Crowd at Greek Theatre
2011-06-28
At their largest US show to date, Florence & the Machine debuted new music to a sold-out Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA (produced under the direction of Another Planet Entertainment). Playing under the stars to a capacity crowd, the band celebrated their debut album, Lungs (released 2009), with a 90-minute set that set the stage for a victory lap across America. The band reveled in the moment, clearly excited to deliver fresh material.
What Water Gave Me offered the audience insight into the band's creative process as they flesh out ideas for a new release. Highlighted ...
Lack of empathy following traumatic brain injury linked to reduced responsiveness to anger
2011-06-28
Milan, Italy, 28 June 2011 – Egocentric, self-centred, and insensitive to the needs of others: these social problems often arise in people with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and have been attributed in part to a loss of emotional empathy, the capacity to recognise and understand the emotions of other people. Given that traumatic brain injuries are becoming more common, and resulting empathy deficits can have negative repercussions on social functioning and quality of life, it is increasingly important to understand the processes that shape emotional empathy. A new ...
Biocides that attack only insects
2011-06-28
Biocides turn out to be less toxic for the environment if they are subjected to microencapsulation, due to the fact that this process forms shell(s) for the substance. This is the conclusion of chemist Ms Mariluz Alonso in a thesis defended at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). In this research, she chose a number of biocides and other complementary substances, seeking a micro-encapsulation which, besides being compatible with the environment, is more soluble in water, more manageable for the operator, with better conditions of conservation, and effective against ...
World record: The highest magnetic fields are created in Dresden
2011-06-28
On June 22, 2011, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf set a new world record for magnetic fields with 91.4 teslas. To reach this record, Sergei Zherlitsyn and his colleagues at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory Dresden (HLD) developed a coil weighing about 200 kilograms in which electric current create the giant magnetic field – for a period of a few milliseconds. The coil survived the experiment unscathed.
"With this record, we're not really that interested in reaching top field values, but instead in using it for research in materials science," explains Joachim ...
Luxury Lingerie Retailer Journelle to Give Away a Year Supply of Designer Intimates
2011-06-28
Designer lingerie seller Journelle, Inc. has launched a Facebook contest that awards the winner with $1,200 worth of lingerie.
To be eligible to win Journelle's "Calendar Girl" sweepstakes and receive $100 worth of fine lingerie every month for a year, contestants must complete an entry form with her name, date of birth, e-mail address, telephone number, and click on Journelle's "Like" button on Facebook . Entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
The contest ends at midnight on July 4, 2011. Purchases from a Journelle store are not required for ...
New measurement important complement to GI
2011-06-28
"White pasta is one example of a product which in some cases has received a bad reputation because of a high GI. However, white pasta produces just as good a blood glucose response as wholewheat pasta", says Liza Rosén, doctor in applied nutrition at Lund University in Sweden.
The reason why wheat pasta has sometimes been assigned a confusingly high value is that GI only considers the entire area under the blood sugar curve. In contrast to what many believe, GI does not take fluctuations in blood sugar into account. This puts foods with a long and fairly low curve at ...