Medical psychology

The study described in this article investigated contemporary young people’s perceptions of drugs and psychoactive substances (PAS). In the course of the research the following hypothesis was tested: in young people’s perceptions about drugs and PAS there are differences in emotional coloring, coherence, and tolerance. J.-C. Abric’s structural approach was used as the basic methodology. The free-associations method provided the bulk of the empirical material. The results obtained were processed via prototypic analysis (by P. Vergès’s method), indexing of emotional associations (by E.E. Pronina’s method), and frequency and content analysis. 

As a result the core and the periphery of the perceptions of youth about drugs and PAS were described, and generalized notional categories that synthesize the structural elements of the perceptions were identified. The study revealed that the perceptions of young people about drugs and PAS do differ in coherence, tolerance, and emotional coloring. Perceptions of drugs are firm, consistent, and negative, while perceptions of PAS are less coherent but dynamic and have an ambivalent emotional coloration. The results are of prognostic importance for understanding young people’s attitudes toward drugs and PAS and can be used to design programs and measures directed to the prevention of PAS and drug abuse.

Today in Russia and all over the world significant efforts are invested in building biobanks—specialized facilities for storing biological materials for research and medical purposes. The successful functioning of biobanks depends directly on people’s willingness to donate their biological materials. No previous studies of people’s attitudes toward donations to biobanks have been undertaken in Russia. The goal of this study was to measure attitudes toward biobank donation among young Russians and to evaluate potential sociodemographic and personality factors that play a role in a person’s readiness to become a donor. Data from 542 students at Saint Petersburg State University were collected from group-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Only one-fifth of the students knew about the existence of biobanks, while roughly the same number believed they might have heard something about them but were not absolutely certain. However, the students indicated a relatively high level of readiness to become biobank donors (74%). Willingness to be a biobank donor was correlated significantly with studying biology and was just modestly correlated with students’ values. In addition, we found gender-specific differences in the biobank characteristics that students felt were important in making a decision about whether to donate. The study demonstrated that today the attitudes of the general population (at least, those of the subgroup studied, students) do not pose a problem for the further development of biobanking in Russia.

Fear of disease progression is one of the most common sources of psychological distress in patients suffering from chronic diseases. Fear of disease progression is a situationspecific and fully discernible (reportable) emotion based on personal experience of a life-threatening disease. This article presents the results of a study of cancer patients’ coping behavior according to the levels of fear of disease progression experienced. The presence of pronounced fear of disease progression reflects a negative cognitive-affective response to one’s expectations for one’s own future; this response is related to a decrease in adaptive capacity. To determine the particular characteristics of coping strategies and coping resources in women with reproductive-system cancers according to the level of fear of disease progression. A total of 177 women with reproductive-system cancers were examined, among them 59 with breast cancer and 118 with gynecological cancers. Women with reproductive-system cancers have varying sets of coping strategies and coping resources according to their level of fear of disease progression. For each of the differentiated groups, specific characteristics of the strategies of coping with difficult life situations are described, along with cognitive self-regulation strategies specific to the illness and to coping resources. The women exhibiting moderate fear of disease progression significantly more often adhered to problem-oriented strategies of coping with difficult life situations and illness and had an internal locus of control regarding treatment. Patients with a low level of fear of disease progression tended to use strategies of positive reinterpretation of difficult life situations and illness; an external locus of control regarding treatment prevailed in this group. Patients found to have a dysfunctional level of fear of disease progression displayed significantly higher rates of using cognitive-regulation strategies focused on negative aspects of illness, as well as strategies for avoiding difficult life situations. Fear of disease progression is a psychological problem in women with reproductive-system cancers. Higher levels of fear of disease progression are associated with a decrease in the psychosocial adaptation of women suffering from reproductivesystem cancers.

The vocational activities of doctors and their social status do not ensure their health. And, falling ill, doctors don’t identify themselves with ordinary patients as they have a deep knowledge of medicine. Thus, the internal picture of a doctor’s illness is both a research and a practical problem: the problem of the psychoprevention of doctors’ illnesses at all stages of their professionalization. The purpose of the research was to study the phenomenological features of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses using the structural approach. The total number of participants was 132. The experimental group consisted of 66 sick doctors, differentiated according to their stage of professionalization: vocational training (students), professional adaptation (interns), full professionalization (doctors). The control group consisted of 66 people who did not have any medical education. All the control subjects were hospitalized with chronic diseases during the study period. The organization of the research was carried out with the use of clinical-psychological and diagnostic methods, the methods of descriptive statistics, and comparative, multidimensional, and structural analysis. The research revealed the following phenomenological features of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses: the prevalence of some anxiety in the doctors and high awareness of their health; the doctors’ altruistic orientation; their willingness to work despite difficulties; and their ability to achieve high results in different activities. The structural features of the doctors’ image of their own diseases on the cognitive level were the following: qualitative heterogeneity during in-service activities; a high degree of image integration during in-service activities; and stereotyped perceptions of the disease. The emotional level revealed the emotional distance between doctors and their patients, and the behavioral level revealed doctors’ disregard for the symptoms of the disease. The structural-phenomenological features of the formation of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses are specific to the circumstances of their origin. For the purpose of the psychoprevention of doctors’ own diseases it is necessary to include these features in the special courses on medical psychology at the stages of vocational training (students) and professional adaptation (interns), as well as in the “psychology in practical medicine” project for doctors.