Grant Number:	5R03CA096468-02 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Langer, Shelby
Organization:	Fred Hutchinson Can Res Ctr
Project Title:	Caregiver Desynchrony:subjective and Expressive Emotion
Fiscal Year:	2003

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R03, in response to PA-00-106 Basic and Translational Research in Emotion, will focus on spousal caregivers (CGs) of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (SCT) patients - persons known to report elevated levels of depression and anxiety as compared to their patient counterparts. The specific aims of the proposed investigation are: 1) examine expression of negative emotion among CGs - as function of patient presence, a situational variable, 2) examine desynchrony among subjective and expressive indicators of emotion, as a function of patient presence and 3) examine correlates of dispositional inhibition desynchrony. Forty SCT couples will be recruited for the study, one year post-transplant. CGs will complete measures affect, dispositional inhibition, marital satisfaction and physical health. In a within-subjects design, CGs will then engage in two videotaped, oral emotional expression (EE) exercises - one in the presence of the patient the other in the absence of the patient. (The patient will not appear in the video.) Blinded raters exposed either to transcripts or facial videos of the sessions will make judgments about the negativity of CGs' lexical and facial expressions, respectively. In line with work on protective buffering and chronic inhibition, CGs are predicted express greater negativity and synchrony in the absence versus presence of the patient; inverse relationships between desynchrony and marital satisfaction, and desynchrony and health, are also predicted. This small grant will allow us to demonstrate feasibility for assessing EE and the existence of desynchrony among CGs. Findings will support an R01 designed to examine implications of such desynchrony: physiologic mechanisms, long-term psychological, physical and interpersonal sequelae. As survivorship expands, so too does the pool of long-term CGs. Collectively, this work will serve as a springboard for person-specific and relationship-protective interventions.




Protective buffering and emotional desynchrony among spousal caregivers of cancer patients.
Authors: Langer S.L. , Rudd M.E. , Syrjala K.L. .
Source: Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2007 Sep; 26(5), p. 635-43.
PMID: 17845115
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Neuropsychologic changes from before transplantation to 1 year in patients receiving myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant.
Authors: Syrjala K.L. , Dikmen S. , Langer S.L. , Roth-Roemer S. , Abrams J.R. .
Source: Blood, 2004-11-15; 104(10), p. 3386-92.
EPub date: 2004-07-13.
PMID: 15251983
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Mood disturbance in the cancer setting: effects of gender and patient/spouse role.
Authors: Langer S.L. .
Source: Seminars in clinical neuropsychiatry, 2003 Oct; 8(4), p. 276-85.
PMID: 14613053
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