Results from a Nationwide Evaluation Study of Labor Market-Integrative Health Promotion for the Unemployed: Impact of the JOBS Program Germany.

Compared to the employed, the unemployed suffer from poorer health, especially in terms of mental health. At the same time, health promotion rarely reaches unemployed people. The "JOBS Program" is an intervention to promote health and labor market integration and has shown positive effects in the USA and Finland. In this confirmatory study, we investigated whether the JOBS Program achieves similar effects in Germany. We applied a randomized controlled trial to compare an intervention group (IVG) with a waiting control group (WCG) before (T0; N = 94) and shortly after (T1; n = 65) the intervention. Concerning our primary outcomes, the JOBS Program Germany was beneficial: Compared to the WCG, the regression estimated that the IVG had (1) a 2.736 scale point higher level of life satisfaction (p = 0.049), (2) a 0.337 scale point higher level of general health (p = 0.025), and (3) a 14.524 scale point higher level of mental well-being (p = 0.004). Although not statistically significant, job search-specific self-efficacy also appeared to be positively associated with the intervention. This study provides evidence of the effectiveness of JOBS Program on the abovementioned outcomes, including for older and long-term unemployed people, supporting the benefits of regular implementation of this program for a wide range of unemployed people in Germany.

Psychological Aspects in Early Adjustment After Severe Burn Injury.

Burn injury is one of the most serious traumatic events with possible psychological and psychosocial consequences. Health status perception is one of the main health outcomes. The severity of psychological symptoms does not always correlate with that of the burn injury, suggesting that early screening for psychological vulnerabilities may be beneficial. The aim of our study was to identify the personality, clinical, and sociodemographic characteristics related to patient's subjective perception of health, depression, and anxiety in a sample of 52 adult patients with severe burn injury shortly before discharge from specialty burn clinic. Subjective health perception was predicted by depression (ß = -.143, t(47) = -3.94, P < .001) and neuroticism (ß = -.106, t(43) = -4.83, P < .001), and it correlated positively with extraversion (r = .2858, P = .0465) and conscientiousness (r = .3663, P = .0096). Depression was predicted by neuroticism (F(1,49) = 18.4; P < .001) and correlated with attachment avoidance (r = .29, P = .0383) and negatively with extraversion (r = -.32, P = .0220). Anxiety was related to attachment anxiety (F(1,49) = 4.25; P = .045), neuroticism (F(1,49) = 15.75; P < .001), and agreeableness (r = -.36, P = .0101). Unemployed patients experienced higher levels of depression and anxiety. This research suggests that personality traits and adult attachment may play an important role in the acute phase of the recovery from a severe burn injury. These findings can be relevant for early intervention and holistic rehabilitation.

Rethinking the Paradigm and Practice of Occupational Health in a World Without Decent Work: A Perspective From East and Southern Africa.

The global political economy is generating new forms and growing shares of informal, insecure, and precarious labor, adding to histories of insecure work and an externalization of social costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the consequences of ignoring such signals in terms of the increased risk and vulnerability of insecure labor. This paper explores how such trends are generating intersecting adverse health outcomes for workers, communities, and environments and the implications for breaking siloes and building links between the paradigms, science, practice, and tools for occupational health, public health, and eco-health. Applying the principle of controlling hazards at the source is argued in this context to call for an understanding of the upstream production and socio-political factors that are jointly affecting the nature of work and employment and their impact on the health of workers, the public, and the planet.

Self-treatment and adverse reactions with herbal products for treating symptoms associated with anxiety and depression in adults from the central-western region of Mexico during the Covid-19 pandemic.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: There are plant species used in the Mexican traditional medicine for the empirical treatment of anxiety and depression. AIM OF THE STUDY: This work assessed the prevalence of self-medication with medicinal plants and the prevalence of the concomitant use of prescribed psychiatric drugs and medicinal plants for treating symptoms associated with anxiety and depression during the Covid-19 lockdown in Mexico. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The suspected adverse reactions associated with drug-herb interactions were assessed. The factors associated with self-medication, the concomitant use of herb-drug combinations, and the presence of adverse reactions due their combined use is also reported. The study was descriptive and cross-sectional using an online questionnaire conducted among population with symptoms associated with anxiety and depression (n = 2100) from seven states of central-western Mexico. RESULTS: The prevalence of the use of herbs (61.9%) and the concomitant use of drug-herb combinations (25.3%) were associated with being diagnosed with mental illness [OR:2.195 (1.655-2.912)] and the use of psychiatric medications [OR:307.994 (178.609-531.107)], respectively. The presence of adverse reactions (n = 104) by the concomitant use of drug-herb combinations was associated with being unemployed [p = 0.004, OR: 3.017 (1.404-6.486)]. CONCLUSION: Health professionals should be aware if their patients concomitantly use medicinal plants and psychiatric drugs. Public health campaigns should promote the possible adverse reactions that might produce the concomitant use of drug-herb combinations for mental illnesses.

Impact of employment and insurance status on distress in gynecologic oncology patients.

OBJECTIVES: To study associations among employment, insurance status, and distress in gynecologic oncology patients; and to evaluate the impact of being unemployed or having no/Medicaid insurance on different distress problem areas. METHODS: In this single institution, cross-sectional analysis of gynecologic oncology patients, we screened for distress and problem areas using the National Comprehensive Cancer Network distress thermometer and problem list at outpatient appointments between 6/2017-9/2017. Primary outcome was self-reported high distress (score ≥ 5). The distress problem list included 5 categories-practical, family, emotional, physical, and other. Employment status included employed, unemployed, homemaker, and retired. Logistic regression was used to predict high distress from employment and insurance statuses, adjusting for relevant covariates. RESULTS: Of 885 women, 101 (11.4%) were unemployed, and 53 (6.0%) uninsured or had Medicaid coverage. One in five patients (n = 191, 21.6%) indicated high distress. Unemployed patients were more likely than employed to endorse high distress [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 3.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.2-5.7, p < 0.001]. Compared to employed patients, a greater proportion of unemployed patients endorsed distress related to practical (p < 0.05), emotional (p < 0.001), physical (p < 0.01), and other (p < 0.05) problems. Uninsured/Medicaid patients were more likely to endorse high distress (aOR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.5-5.1, p < 0.001) and report family (p < 0.001), emotional (p < 0.001), and other (p < 0.01) problems than patients who had Medicare/commercial insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Gynecologic oncology patients who are unemployed or have no/Medicaid insurance face high distress that appears to arise from issues beyond practical problems, including financial and/or insurance insecurities.

Effectiveness of a low-dose mindfulness-based intervention for alleviating distress in young unemployed adults.

While the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) with respect to distress has been widely researched, unemployed individuals, who often suffer from high levels of distress, have largely been neglected in MBI research. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a low-dose MBI on distress in a sample of young unemployed adults. The sample included 239 young unemployed adults enrolled for a 6-week long employability-related training camp. Participants were allocated into an intervention group that received weekly 1-hour mindfulness training over 4 weeks, and a control group. Dispositional mindfulness, distress and well-being were assessed in the entire sample prior to the start and upon completion of the mindfulness training. A mixed model ANCOVA showed that distress was inversely and significantly predicted by baseline levels of mindfulness and well-being. After accounting for the baseline levels of mindfulness and well-being, a significant effect of the mindfulness intervention was evident. This result shows that a low-dose MBI can decrease distress in a sample of young unemployed adults and its effectiveness is positively associated with initial levels of dispositional mindfulness and well-being.

Social Causation, Social Selection, or Common Determinants? Examining Competing Explanations for the Link Between Young Adult Unemployment and Nicotine Dependence.

INTRODUCTION: Unemployment has been related to smoking, yet the causal nature of the association is subject to continued debate. Social causation argues that unemployment triggers changes in smoking, whereas the social selection hypothesis proposes that pre-existing smoking behavior lowers the probability of maintaining employment. The present study tested these competing explanations while accounting for another alternative explanation-common liability. METHODS: Data were from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal cohort followed from birth to age 35. Odds were generated for having nicotine dependence in models for social causation and being unemployed in models for social selection. These models were extended to include possible common liability factors during childhood (eg, novelty seeking) and young adulthood (eg, major depression). RESULTS: In the model testing social causation, coefficients representing the impacts of unemployment on nicotine dependence remained statistically significant and robust (odds ratio [OR] = 1.55; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.20, 2.00), even after accounting for common determinant measures. In contrast, a reverse social selection model revealed that coefficients representing the impacts of nicotine dependence on unemployment substantially attenuated and became statistically nonsignificant as childhood factors were added (OR = 1.14; 95% CI = 0.90, 1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Unemployment may serve as inroads to nicotine addiction among young adults, not the other way, even in the context of nicotine dependence, a more impaired form of smoking that may arguably hold higher potential to generate social selection processes. This social causation process cannot be completely attributable to common determinant factors. IMPLICATIONS: It is critical to clarify whether unemployment triggers changes in smoking behaviors (ie, social causation) or vice versa (ie, social selection)-the answers to the question will lead to public health strategies with very different intervention targets to break the linkage. The current study findings favor social causation over social selection, regardless of gender, and support a needed shift in service profiles for unemployed young adults-from a narrow focus on job skills training to a more holistic approach that incorporates knowledge from addiction science in which unemployed young adults can find needed services to cope with job loss.

Social and economic barriers to adherence among patients at Livingstone General Hospital in Zambia.

BACKGROUND:  Zambia is one of the countries hardest hit by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic with a national HIV prevalence estimated at 14% among those aged 15-49 years in 2012. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been available in public health facilities in Zambia since 2003. By early 2016, 65% of the 1.2 million Zambians living with HIV were accessing ART. While access to ART has improved the lives of people living with HIV globally, the lack of adherence to ART is a major challenge to treatment success globally. AIM:  This article reports on social and economic barriers to ART adherence among HIV patients being attended to at Livingstone General Hospital in Zambia. SETTING:  Livingstone General Hospital is located in the Southern province of Zambia, and had over 7000 patients enrolled for HIV care of whom 3880 patients were on ART. METHODS:  An explorative, qualitative study was conducted with 42 patients on ART where data were collected through six focus group discussions (3 male and 3 female groups) and seven in-depth interviews. Data were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic content analysis. RESULTS:  Economic factors such as poverty and unemployment and the lack of food were reported as major barriers to adherence. Furthermore, social factors such as traditional medicine, religion, lack of family and partner support, and disclosure were also reported as critical barriers to adherence to ART. CONCLUSION:  Interventions to improve adherence among ART patients should aim to redress the socio-economic challenges at community and individual levels.

Role of age and health in perceptions of returning to work: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: People aged over 50 years form a growing proportion of the working age population, but are at increased risk of unemployment compared to other age groups. It is often difficult to return to work after unemployment, particularly for those with health issues. In this paper, we explored the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of returning to work after a period of unemployment (hereafter RTW) barriers among unemployed adults aged over 50 years. METHOD: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 26 unemployed individuals aged 50-64 years who were engaged with the UK Government's Work Programme. Data were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Age alone was not discussed by participants as a barrier to work; rather their discussions of barriers to work focused on the ways in which age influenced other issues in their lives. For participants reporting chronic health conditions, or disabilities, there was a concern about being unfit to return to their previous employment area, and therefore having to "start again" in a new career, with associated concerns about their health status and managing their treatment burden. Some participants also reported experiencing either direct or indirect ageism (including related to their health status or need to access healthcare) when looking for work. Other issues facing older people included wider socio-political changes, such as the increased pension age, were felt to be unfair in many ways and contradicted existing expectations of social roles (such as acting as a carer for other family members). CONCLUSION: Over-50s experienced multiple and interacting issues, at both the individual and societal level, that created RTW barriers. There is a need for employability interventions that focus on supporting the over-50s who have fallen out of the labour market to take a holistic approach, working across healthcare, employability and the local labour market, providing treatment and skills training for both those out of work and for employers, in order to create an intervention that that helps achieve RTW and its associated health benefit.

[Psychosocial Characteristic and Health Care for Unemployed Youths with Extreme Obesity - A Model Project]. / Psychosoziale Charakterisierung und Integrative Versorgung arbeitsloser Jugendlicher mit extremer Adipositas ­ ein Modellprojekt.

INTRODUCTION: In clinical care, unemployed youths have limited access to available obesity treatments including obesity surgery. With the implementation of a specialized obesity outpatient unit in cooperation with five German job-centers we aim to prove whether unemployed youths are interested in obesity treatment and how they adhere to a multilevel obesity treatment in terms of participation rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Youths (aged 15.0-24.9 years) with a body-mass-index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2 were initially offered an individualized patient information concerning obesity treatment on the premises of the job-center. If interested, youths were included in the multicomponent treatment program (6 sessions). Those who participated in a minimum of 5 out of 6 treatment sessions were offered access to a preparation course (4 sessions) and an individualized evaluation of the indication for obesity surgery. RESULTS: Between 2012 and 2017, 83 youths (mean age 21.1 years, BMI 48.1 kg/m2, BMI 35.0-39.9 kg/m2: N=7, ≥40 kg/m2: N=71) were enrolled in the treatment program. 34 participated in ≥5/6 sessions in the multicomponent obesity treatment and 20 expressed an interest in obesity surgery. To date, 11 adolescents underwent obesity surgery with a mean BMI reduction of 14.3 kg/m2 between 3 and 36 months after obesity surgery (excess weight loss 27.3%) vs. 3.8 kg/m2 between 6 and 48 months after treatment initiation in the group of youths who did not receive obesity surgery. 13 youths were integrated in the primary labor market. DISCUSSION: Several unemployed youths accepted our treatment program and improved their health and vocational status in the course of their participation. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a specialized obesity outpatient unit within German job-centers is a successful strategy to characterize this high-risk-group and to determine their individual treatment needs. This finding must be confirmed with a larger sample size and by evaluating the long-term course of treatment.

The Effect of Progressive Muscle Relaxation on Emotional Competence: Depression-Anxiety-Stress, Sense of Coherence, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Well-Being of Unemployed People in Greece: An Intervention Study.

OBJECTIVES: Assessment of the impact of Jacobson Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) on depression-anxiety-stress symptoms, sense of coherence, health-related quality of life and well-being in long-term unemployed people with anxiety disorders. DESIGN AND SETTING: An intervention study was conducted at a relevant Organization, in Athens, Greece. INTERVENTION: 50 long-term unemployed individuals suffering from anxiety disorders participated in the study. Participants were separated into two groups: (a) the intervention group (30 individuals) that was trained on an 8-week on Progressive Muscle Relaxation program and also received counseling services and (b) the control group (20 individuals) that received only counseling services. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale, Sense of Coherence, Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-being were evaluated at baseline and after the intervention. RESULTS: Significant changes were noted in the studied variables between the two groups, with improved outcomes in the intervention group. The intervention group showed a decrease in the symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress (p < 0.001) [depression (p < 0.001), anxiety (p < 0.001), stress (p < 0.001)], a higher score of sense of coherence (p < 0.001), improved health-related quality of life regarding the mental health domain (p < 0.001), and improvement in well-being (p < 0.001). No significant change was observed in the control group during the follow-up period.

Mindfulness Meditation Training and Executive Control Network Resting State Functional Connectivity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness meditation training has been previously shown to enhance behavioral measures of executive control (e.g., attention, working memory, cognitive control), but the neural mechanisms underlying these improvements are largely unknown. Here, we test whether mindfulness training interventions foster executive control by strengthening functional connections between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)-a hub of the executive control network-and frontoparietal regions that coordinate executive function. METHODS: Thirty-five adults with elevated levels of psychological distress participated in a 3-day randomized controlled trial of intensive mindfulness meditation or relaxation training. Participants completed a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan before and after the intervention. We tested whether mindfulness meditation training increased resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between dlPFC and frontoparietal control network regions. RESULTS: Left dlPFC showed increased connectivity to the right inferior frontal gyrus (T = 3.74), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) (T = 3.98), right supplementary eye field (T = 4.29), right parietal cortex (T = 4.44), and left middle temporal gyrus (T = 3.97, all p < .05) after mindfulness training relative to the relaxation control. Right dlPFC showed increased connectivity to right MFG (T = 4.97, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: We report that mindfulness training increases rsFC between dlPFC and dorsal network (superior parietal lobule, supplementary eye field, MFG) and ventral network (right IFG, middle temporal/angular gyrus) regions. These findings extend previous work showing increased functional connectivity among brain regions associated with executive function during active meditation by identifying specific neural circuits in which rsFC is enhanced by a mindfulness intervention in individuals with high levels of psychological distress. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov,NCT01628809.

[Medicalization of social problems using the example of patients with pain]. / Medikalisierung sozialer Probleme am Beispiel von Schmerzpatienten.

The number of invalidity pensions for mental and psychosomatic disorders has dramatically increased in the last decade. Given the experience in sociomedical assessment of people with chronical pain diseases, we developed the impression that primarily social problems-especially long-term unemployment-play an important role in the processes of chronification of pain diseases. We evaluated 100 expert opinions from 2002-2007 according to quantitative and qualitative critieria. We found that at the time of applying for retirement nearly the whole sample was long-term unemployed and that the especially these people suffered from diseases characterized by pain at the beginning of their patient career and they all had received a large range of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Only during the course of their disease-usually after the rejection of their application for pension by expert medical opinions-did they receive the diagnosis in the field of psychiatry and psychosomatics. In a next step they were assessed by experts in the field of psychiatry and psychosomatics. In this article, the important social factors that influence this development are discussed.

[Not Available]. / Awareness training for unemployed people and for welfare professionals.

BACKGROUND: Unemployment often implies several psychological issues, including hopelessness and low self-esteem. These issues may contribute to maintain the current unemployed status. OBJECTIVES: In this study we present the effects of a mindfulness-based stress reduction treatment for unemployed people and welfare professionals, aimed to improve resilience and quality of life. METHODS: We assessed both unemployed people and welfare professionals for psychological outcomes at both pre- and post-treatment. RESULTS: After treatment, participants reported higher quality of life and higher levels of well-being, together with better resilience and coping style, compared to pre-test values. CONCLUSIONS: Meditation training can effectively improve well-being and resilience of unemployed people and welfare professionals.

Alterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that mindfulness meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether mindfulness meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults (n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential mindfulness meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation. RESULTS: We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that mindfulness meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC (p < .05, corrected). These pretraining to posttraining alterations in posterior cingulate cortex-dlPFC rsFC statistically mediated mindfulness meditation training improvements in IL-6 at 4-month follow-up. Specifically, these alterations in rsFC statistically explained 30% of the overall mindfulness meditation training effects on IL-6 at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide the first evidence that mindfulness meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.

Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial.

Recent studies indicate that mindfulness meditation training interventions reduce stress and improve stress-related health outcomes, but the neural pathways for these effects are unknown. The present research evaluates whether mindfulness meditation training alters resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala, a region known to coordinate stress processing and physiological stress responses. We show in an initial discovery study that higher perceived stress over the past month is associated with greater bilateral amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) rsFC in a sample of community adults (n = 130). A follow-up, single-blind randomized controlled trial shows that a 3-day intensive mindfulness meditation training intervention (relative to a well-matched 3-day relaxation training intervention without a mindfulness component) reduced right amygdala-sgACC rsFC in a sample of stressed unemployed community adults (n = 35). Although stress may increase amygdala-sgACC rsFC, brief training in mindfulness meditation could reverse these effects. This work provides an initial indication that mindfulness meditation training promotes functional neuroplastic changes, suggesting an amygdala-sgACC pathway for stress reduction effects.

Spirituality, hope, and self-sufficiency among low-income job seekers.

Self-sufficiency (SS) is an important social welfare policy goal in the United States, yet little is known about the process that leads to SS. To address this gap in the literature, this study examined the relationship between spirituality, hope, and SS among a sample of low-income job seekers (N = 116). It was hypothesized that spirituality would be related to hope, and that hope, in turn, would be related to SS. Using survey data from two workforce development agencies, this hypothesis was confirmed-hope fully mediated the relationship between spirituality and SS. Of the two factors through which hope is commonly operationalized-agency and pathways-supplemental analysis suggested that spirituality only affects SS through the agency channel. To help foster hope in direct practice settings, it is suggested that social workers might employ spiritually modified cognitive-behavioral therapy protocols. Macrostructural interventions that block the pathway component of hope are also suggested to help reverse exclusion from labor market entry. As such, hope needs to be addressed comprehensively-intrapsychically and macrostructurally-to effect bottom-up change for SS. Engendering hope may assist clients overcome some of the many challenges they encounter on the journey to SS.

Stigma and its determinants among male drug dependents receiving methadone maintenance treatment.

BACKGROUND: The stigma attached to substance use is considered as a barrier to treatment, resulting in continued dependence and harmful consequences for the health of drug abusers and society. METHODS: In the current study, stigma and its relation with patient characteristics and secrecy was examined in people who were in treatment of drug dependency. Participants were 144 patients from two referral methadone treatment centers who completed a survey containing questionnaires about stigma, secrecy and other measures of drug use. RESULTS: Patients reported high levels of self-stigma and moderate levels of stigma-related rejection and perceived stigma as well as commonly using secrecy, as a way of coping. More experiencing of self -stigma was associated with unemployment, positive history of IV drug use, incarceration and heroin consumption, compared to opium use. IV drug users and unemployed persons also reported more contacts with stigma- related rejection. No association was found between stigma and previous history of treatment for substance abuse. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate stigma in individuals who are in the treatment for substance dependence and highlight the need for more studies to clarify all aspects of drug use stigma.

[Defence mechanisms and coping strategies in men and women: a comparative and structural study based on the artistic production of people suffering from a break-up of their life project]. / Mécanismes de défense et stratégies d'ajustement au masculin et au féminin: etude structurale comparée basée sur la production artistique de personnes en rupture de projet de vie.

A comparative study of men and women suffering from a break-up of their life project allowed us examining the typically female and male manners to cope with trauma, anxiety, guilt, depression and internal destructivity. In a first stage, an exploratory study was focussed on 206 subjects, belonging to several clinical subgroups: people living in great precarity and long-term unemployed people, asylum seekers and refugees, drug addicts, prisoners and people coming out of prison. Secondly, arts therapeutic sessions were proposed with the aim of helping the participants finding an outlet to their situation. The artistic production (drawings and stories induced by music) was analysed with the help of original rating scales, constructed in a phenomenological and structural perspective. We will present a synthesis of our qualitative observations, as well as some results of typological and structural studies, computed with the help of non parametric statistical procedures on the data of N = 93 participants. The results allow us pointing to gender differences and defining typically male and female coping styles. Differential indications for psychotherapy can be extracted from these analyses.

Combination of wearable multi-biosensor platform and resonance frequency training for stress management of the unemployed population.

Currently considerable research is being directed toward developing methodologies for controlling emotion or releasing stress. An applied branch of the basic field of psychophysiology, known as biofeedback, has been developed to fulfill clinical and non-clinical needs related to such control. Wearable medical devices have permitted unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs and emerging biofeedback services in a pervasive manner. With the global recession, unemployment has become one of the most serious social problems; therefore, the combination of biofeedback techniques with wearable technology for stress management of unemployed population is undoubtedly meaningful. This article describes a wearable biofeedback system based on combining integrated multi-biosensor platform with resonance frequency training (RFT) biofeedback strategy for stress management of unemployed population. Compared to commercial system, in situ experiments with multiple subjects indicated that our biofeedback system was discreet, easy to wear, and capable of offering ambulatory RFT biofeedback.Moreover, the comparative studies on the altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation before and after three week RFT biofeedback training was performed in unemployed population with the aid of our wearable biofeedback system. The achieved results suggested that RFT biofeedback in combination with wearable technology was capable of significantly increasingoverall HRV, which indicated by decreasing sympathetic activities, increasing parasympathetic activities, and increasing ANS synchronization. After 3-week RFT-based respiration training, the ANS's regulating function and coping ability of unemployed population have doubled, and tended toward a dynamic balance.