TITLE:
Mental and Cardiovascular Health of Portuguese Subjects in a Situation of Economic Insufficiency
AUTHORS:
Eduardo Gonçalves, Emanuel Marco Moniz, Saul Neves de Jesus
KEYWORDS:
Poverty, Stress, Affects, Depression, Heart Rate Variability, Social Support, Resilience, Economic Behavior
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
19,
2015
ABSTRACT: Economic insufficiency
causes stress and negative affects. Poverty is self-perpetuated, also due to a
particular pattern of economic behaviors induced by negative affects and
stress. Often, loneliness occurs together with economic insufficiency. For this
study, it has been selected a sample of convenience. A positive correlation
between anxiety/depression and negative affects is presented. Dispositional
optimism and social support, factors which contribute to health, serve as
buffers, in negative correlation, of the negative impact of negative affects,
due to financial restraint, on health. Financial management is negatively
correlated with the lack of cardiovascular health, and cardiovascular
dysfunction correlates positively with loneliness, in this study. Positive
affects correlate positively with resilience skills, which correlate negatively
with depression. Within this context, psychobiological therapeutic
interventions and psychotherapy, which also target psychological dysfunction
related to economic behavior of persons in a situation of poverty, would be
beneficial.