Advances in PH Journal
Psychosocial Issues in PH Winter 2012 (Vol 10, No 4)
- Psychosocial Issues in PH Winter 2012 (Vol 10, No 4): Table of Contents
- Editor's Memo
Beyond Physical Well-Being
- Guest editor's memo
It is again an honor and privilege to serve as the guest editor of an issue of Advances in Pulmonary Hypertension; this time, “Psychosocial Issues in Pulmonary Hypertension.”
- Nonpharmacological Treatment Options for Mild to Moderate Depression
Depression affects approximately 14 million American adults each year. Researchers estimate that by the year 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of disability.
- Clinical Trials Update: The Pediatric Sildenafil Trial
While we have long understood pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) to be a chronic disorder of the pulmonary vasculature that can lead to right heart failure and death if untreated, there are currently no therapies approved for children.
- Review of the Latest Published Research
Summaries and commentaries from the section editors and invited reviewers present a clinical context for practitioners' application of the latest published research relevant to the care of patients with pulmonary hypertension. In this issue Ioana Preston, MD, discusses the principle of moral pluralism in relation to decision making in the care of PH patients.
- Ask the Expert: What is a Nutritional Lifestyle?
Nourishment, nutrients, food, and eating are intertwined with both the science and pathophysiology of pulmonary artery hypertension; the interplay of these entities is currently unclear. However, it is exciting that basic science researchers are conducting tangential research in animals and astute clinicians in the field are observing intriguing effects in patients' clinical courses.
- Quality of Life in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Qualitative Insights From Patients and Caregivers
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive and presently incurable disease resulting in distressing and debilitating symptoms for patients, including exertional dyspnea, fatigue, chest pain/discomfort, and feeling dizzy or lightheaded. These symptoms cause profound functional limitations that often require patients to make significant lifestyle changes and cope with formidable psychological challenges as they face this progressive disease. While the introduction of new treatments over the past decade has expanded options for improving functional exercise capacity, we still have limited insight into the nature of the psychological challenges facing patients and the secondary impact on their caregivers.
- Depression: Beyond Description As an Important Comorbidity in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension—The Next Steps
The recent identification of depression as an important comorbidity in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)1,2 is leading to a broad array of efforts to further refine our understanding of this disorder, enhance patient and provider education about it, and encourage prompt recognition, appropriate diagnosis, and treatment of affected individuals.
- Exercise in Pulmonary Hypertension
In healthy subjects, exercise causes a complex cardiovascular and ventilatory response that allows for a 20-fold increase of oxygen consumption as compared to rest. In pulmonary hypertension (PH) this response is very much limited by a restriction of the maximum cardiac output (CO).
- Disability in Pulmonary Hypertension
Disability in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) is rooted not only in physical impairment, but can also be the result of associated mental and emotional dysfunction often experienced by PH patients.
- Pulmonary Hypertension Roundtable
PAH: The Patient's Point of View
- News to Use