Satisfaction with life and coping skills in the acute and chronic urticaria.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in satisfaction with life and coping strategies between patients with acute and chronic urticaria. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty patients with urticaria were divided into 2 groups after 6 weeks of standardized dermatology treatment (33 patients with acute and 27 patients with chronic urticaria). At baseline, all patients answered the following questionnaires: Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI-A), The Multidimensional Coping Inventory (COPE) and General questionnaire (age, gender, education, employment, marital status). After six weeks all the participants were re-tested with 2 questionnaires: SWLS and PWI-A. RESULTS: Six weeks after the initial testing there was a statistically significant difference in satisfaction with life between patients with acute and chronic urticaria. Patients with acute urticaria were more satisfied with their lives than patients with chronic urticaria. Also, there was a statistically significant difference in the use of emotion-focused coping, seeking social support for emotional reasons and seeking social support for instrumental reasons. Patients with acute urticaria used emotion-focused coping and sought social support for emotional and instrumental reasons to a greater degree than patients with chronic urticaria. CONCLUSION: Patients with acute urticaria were more satisfied with their lives than patients with chronic urticaria. Patients with acute urticaria used emotion-focused coping and sought social support for emotional and instrumental reasons to a greater degree than patients with chronic urticaria.

Problems in the current psychiatry residency training program in Croatia: residents' perspective.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of the current residency training in psychiatry in Croatia using parameters of professional achievements of residents and their subjective evaluations of the residency training that is being offered. 66 residents from 15 Croatian psychiatric hospitals, clinics and wards in general hospitals fulfilled the questionnaire constructed to obtain information about the profile of psychiatry residents in Croatia, parameters of educational quality and evaluation of offered residency training as seen by residents. We interviewed 89% of all residents that had a trainee status in September and October 2006 in Croatia (66 out of 74). Study results indicate that Croatian psychiatry residents are derived from a pool of very good medical students and the majority is engaged in postgraduate studies and research activities and shows high interest in specific psychiatric fields such as psychotherapy and clinical psychiatry. Most of participants are only partially satisfied with the residency training that is being offered and feel that most problems reside from the lack of practical psychotherapy, the inefficiency of the mentorship system and the lack of funding resources. The results of this study revealed the major problems of psychiatry residents in Croatia. Following those results, we will perform the study that would include mentors and supervisors from different Croatian psychiatric centers. That could enable the development of specific interventions with aim to improve current residency training in Croatia.