Psychological Factors as Determinants of Medical Conditions

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Editorial

08 November 2019

Editorial: Psychological Factors as Determinants of Medical Conditions

Gabriella Martino

,

Viviana Langher

,

Valentina Cazzato

and

Carmelo Mario Vicario

13,847 views

38 citations

Editors

4

Gabriella Martino

University of Messina

Carmelo Mario Vicario

University of Messina

Valentina Cazzato

Liverpool John Moores University

Viviana Langher

Department of Dynamic, Clinical Psychology and Health, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome

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This Research Topic is part of a series of Research Topics on Psychological Factors as Determinants of Medical Conditions - Volume II

Life expectancy is increasing world-wide, thus age-related diseases are becoming a major health concern. Chronic diseases and related outcomes, such as osteoporosis and associated fractures, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, may seriously impact people's quality of life and their perceived quality of life and this impact may in turn lead to psychopathological consequences. Indeed, psychopathological symptoms frequently occur in tandem with chronic medical conditions and can even predict, and impact, mortality independently of a wide range of potential confounders.

Moreover, psychological aspects may also drive individual behavior, including adherence to medical advice, deeply conditioning the management of chronic diseases. Anxiety and depression, emotional distress (e.g. alexithymia, abnormal disgust processing), body integrity identity disorders, lead to a variety of functional somatic disorders and affect a patient's attitude to treatment, which can impact their perceived quality of life. Therefore, overturning the usual causal direction body-mind, evidences exist regarding the key role of psychopathological factors in the history of chronic illness.

A strict evaluation of the psychological variables could contribute to a better understanding of the individual condition and possibly predict the risk of onset of new medical diseases or complications. This could suggest a new direction in psychopathological research and prevention, leading to screening subjects at risk for medical events in order to individualize and improve diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

This Research Topic will include interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary contributions in order to understand how psychopathological aspects mentioned above may impact on somatic symptoms and medical outcomes especially in age related common chronic diseases.
We are interested in both empirical and theoretical (e.g., Opinion articles, Review, Hypothesis and Theory, General Commentary) contributions related to:

1) Emotion processing (e.g., emotional distress, quality of life, social interactions) in chronic diseases.
2) Executive functions in chronic diseases.
3) Psychological health, adherence and medical outcome.
4) Physical exercise and adherence.

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Editors

Gabriella Martino

University of Messina

Carmelo Mario Vicario

University of Messina

Valentina Cazzato

Liverpool John Moores University

Viviana Langher

Department of Dynamic, Clinical Psychology and Health, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome

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Published In

Frontiers in Psychology

Health Psychology, Psychology for Clinical Settings, Psychopathology

Frontiers in Psychiatry

Psychopathology

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