Personal Improvement Computer Systems

Insônia é a dificuldade em iniciar ou manter o sono que traz prejuízo no funcionamento diurno do indivíduo nas esferas física, mental e/ou social. É um sintoma prevalente na população e tem consequências importantes para o indivíduo e a sociedade. As práticas integrativas e complementares (PICS) são recursos terapêuticos que buscam a prevenção de doenças e a recuperação da saúde, com ênfase na escuta acolhedora, no desenvolvimento do vínculo terapêutico e na integração do ser humano com o meio ambiente e a sociedade. Algumas PICS encontram-se disponíveis pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). O abuso e/ou uso indiscriminado de medicamentos para insônia é um problema de saúde pública. O uso de PICS para insônia pode corresponder a uma opção terapêutica em casos selecionados, tornando necessário entender a percepção dos pacientes acerca do uso das mesmas. OBJETIVOS: O objetivo deste estudo é conhecer a subjetividade de um indivíduo insone para entender o que o motiva a aderir às PICS ou quais as barreiras para adesão às mesmas. METODOLOGIA: Estudo descritivo, exploratório, qualitativo. Foi realizada entrevista semiestruturada com uma voluntária no período de novembro a dezembro de 2019. Ela preenchia critérios de insônia do International Criteria for Sleep Disorders. RESULTADOS: A entrevistada é uma mulher jovem, com insônia e comorbidades. A mesma conhece várias PICS e já fez uso de algumas delas. Suas principais motivações para uso das PICS foram: experiência traumática com médico que atendia pelo método biomédico convencional, medo de dependência de medicamentos, preferência por tratamentos naturais e recomendação de familiar. CONCLUSÃO: A busca por um tratamento mais natural e a quebra de confiança entre médico e paciente pode servir como ponto importante de ruptura com o modelo biomédico atual, motivando o indivíduo a buscar alternativas, principalmente indicações de pessoas de seu círculo familiar/social. É frequente a omissão por parte dos pacientes do uso das PICS. Torna-se necessário que os médicos sejam capacitados em fitoterapia e plantas medicinais para insônia, pela frequência de seu uso domiciliar e seu risco de efeitos colaterais e interações medicamentosas. Mais pesquisas necessitam ser feitas para elucidar certas questões.

This study examines gender differences in COVID‐19‐related stress and the relationship between COVID‐19‐related stress and life satisfaction in a large sample of financial advisors in the United States (n = 499). Compared to men, women reported greater increases in work‐related stress since the onset of COVID‐19, higher levels of stress from managing family responsibilities, and more stress from witnessing the impact of COVID‐19 on their clients (i.e., empathetic stress). Using an integrative model of top‐down and bottom‐up influences on life satisfaction, COVID‐19‐related stress predicted life satisfaction among women but not men. Consistent with integrative models of both bottom‐up and top‐down influences on satisfaction assessment, trait affect was found to predict life satisfaction. Implications of the unequal stress of COVID‐19 on men and women within the financial planning profession are discussed.

An automated program for delivering stimulus control and sleep restriction strategies was developed and implemented on a handheld computer and compared to a self-help manual program in 90 chronic primary insomnia participants at 6 and 12 weeks. The computerized program was generally well accepted and utilized. No significant differences between conditions were found on questionnaire and sleep diary measures, but subsequent exploratory analyses revealed greater percentages of participants in the computer condition compared to the self-help condition who were classified as without clinically significant insomnia at 6 weeks based on Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) criteria. Further research is needed on the efficacy of computerized behavioral approaches for insomnia, but the results of this study indicate that computerized delivery of stimulus control and sleep restriction is feasible and sufficiently promising to warrant further study.

Objective: The authors developed a smoking cessation program using mobile phone text messaging to provide tailored and stage-specific messages to college smokers. Participants and Methods: The authors recruited 31 daily smokers who desired to quit from a college campus and asked them to use an Internet and mobile phone text messaging program to quit smoking. Results: Six weeks after program initiation, 45% reported abstinence with 42% abstinent based on cotinine verification. Continued smokers reported significantly reduced smoking rates and dependence. Overall, participants accepted the text messages. Conclusions: These results replicate findings from an earlier study and indicate that mobile phone text messaging is a potentially efficacious and easily disseminated method for providing cessation interventions to young adult smokers.

Lifelong learning programs continue to grow in span and scope. Few studies, however, have investigated how older adults themselves participate in group learning. The central question explored in our study was as follows: Does gender play a role in group dynamics for older adults? Two groups of volunteers (age 62 to 96 years) enrolled in a 16-week discussion group. Groups were videotaped and turns at talk were counted. Results revealed that although men were the minority, they accounted for a substantial proportion of the turns at talk for both groups. Further research on lifelong learning is needed to understand how gender dynamics may affect older learners.