BACKGROUND The distressed (Type D) personality is associated with poor health status (HS) and increased inflammatory activation in heart failure (HF). We tested whether multiple inflammatory biomarkers mediated the association between Type D personality and the course of self-reported HS over 18 months. METHODS HF outpatients (n=228, 80% male, mean age 67.0±8.7 years), filled out the Type D q...

Health insurance benefit mandates are believed to have adverse effects on the labor market, but efforts to document such effects for mental health parity mandates have had limited success. I show that one reason for this failure is that the association between parity mandates and labor market outcomes vary with mental distress. Accounting for this heterogeneity, I find adverse labor market effe...

BACKGROUND Personality factors have shown to be related to mortality, morbidity, and psychological aspects in chronic disorders. Little is known about the effect of personality on disease severity in sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of Type D personality and its relation with relevant clinical characteristics in sarcoidosis ...

BACKGROUND Anxiety is an often overlooked risk factor in coronary artery disease (CAD). Hence, little is known about predictors of unremitting chronic anxiety in CAD patients. We examined whether the distressed personality (type-D) predicts chronic anxiety post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS Unselected patients (n=167) treated with PCI using sirolimus-eluting or bare metal ...

BACKGROUND Depression, anxiety, and type D ("distressed") personality (tendency to experience negative emotions paired with social inhibition) have been associated with poor prognosis in coronary heart disease, but little is known about their role in chronic heart failure. Therefore, we investigated whether these indicators of psychological distress are associated with mortality in chronic hear...

This investigation evaluated the Atypical Response (ATR) scale of the Trauma Symptom Inventory - 2nd edition (TSI-2) in terms of its ability to distinguish genuine symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from simulated PTSD. Seventy-five undergraduate students were trained to simulate PTSD and were given monetary incentives to do so. Their responses on the PTSD Checklist (PCL), TSI-2 A...

BACKGROUND Depression is a common psychiatric complication of diabetes, but little is known about the natural course and the consequences of depressive symptoms in primary care patients with type 2 diabetes. While depression has been related to poor glycemic control and increased risk for macrovascular disease, its association with microvascular complications remains understudied. The predictiv...