In two experiments we tested people’s naïve beliefs about where interventions act in real-world causal systems. We provided people with a description of a novel health condition that could be treated by two different treatments, a medication and a lifestyle modification. Participants judged a medication as acting on the symptoms of a disorder instead of the cause of the disorder, while a lifest...

Research efforts are being made to identify personality and cognitive variables predictive of poor adjustment following myocardial infarction. Sixty-two male patients were examined after a first and uncomplicated myocardial infarction to determine whether dispositional emotional reactivity and debilitating beliefs measured during hospitalization can predict work engagement, social activities in...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Illness representations in physical health problems have been studied extensively using the Self-regulation Model (SRM) focusing on five dimensions of illness beliefs (identity, consequences, causes, timeline and control, or cure). Associations have been found between beliefs about illness and a range of health outcomes. This study aimed to examine models of depression...

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) form organized beliefs regarding their illness and treatment. These perceptions influence the coping strategies employed by an individual to manage his/her illness and may act as a predictor for his/her willingness to engage in self-management behaviours. While illness perceptions have been identified as predictors of non-adherence, depression and mort...

OBJECTIVES To determine the relationship between Type D personality (the tendency to experience negative emotions and to be socially inhibited) and illness beliefs in postmyocardial infarction (MI) patients. METHODS One hundred and ninety-two MI patients participated. Patients were assessed on demographic variables and completed the Type D Scale (DS14) and Brief Illness Perceptions Questionna...

BACKGROUND Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychosocial interventions for low back pain (LBP) have been found to have only small effects on disability outcomes. Investigations of the specific mechanisms that may lead to an improvement in outcome have therefore been called for. METHODS We present an application of the causal inference approach to mediation analysis using the exampl...

Increasing longevity and prevalence of long-term conditions contribute to older adults being the greatest users of health services. However, relatively little is known about the health and illness beliefs of the oldest old or how they decide to seek help in response to symptoms. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with day centre attendees aged 80-93, we find that a moral, hierarchical appr...

Untreated depression in patients with physical illness causes distress, amplifies physical symptoms and is more predic-tive of functional impairment over time than severity of physical illness. For example, patients with rheumatoid arthritis who become depressed may present with increasingly painful joints in the absence of increased disease activity. Also, diabetic patients with depression hav...