Cultural differences in patterns of mood states on board the International Space Station
- Paper number
IAC-05-A1.5.03
- Author
Dr. Jennifer Boyd Ritsher, University of California and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Nick Kanas, University of California and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Stephanie Saylor, University of California and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
BACKGROUND. Based on our previous studies of astronauts, cosmonauts, and Russian psychiatric patients, we hypothesized that the patterning of mood states among space program personnel would vary by culture, regardless of the overall frequency of these states in each cultural group. Russian clinicians recognize a pattern of distress known as asthenia, which is a mild, reversible form of neurasthenia. They refer to asthenization as the process by which asthenia develops during long-duration space missions. Neurasthenia-spectrum disorders are featured in Russian, European, and Chinese systems of psychiatric nomenclature but not in the American diagnostic system. According to the asthenia model, depression should covary with fatigue. According to the American model of psychological distress, depression and fatigue are two separate syndromes and therefore would be less likely to covary within individuals. Previously, we found support for this cultural difference in patterns of mood states in two datasets, one of which included two populations (crewmembers and mission control staff). Our team’s new study of International Space Station personnel provided an opportunity to replicate these analyses in an additional sample of crewmembers and mission control staff. METHODOLOGY. Participants included 8 astronauts, 9 cosmonauts, 108 American mission control personnel, and 20 Russian mission control personnel, all from the ISS program. Participants completed a weekly questionnaire assessing their levels of mood. The analytic strategy (mixed model linear regression) adjusted for the effect of multiple observations per person. We tested whether indicators of depression were related to fatigue among Russians, and whether the pattern was different among Americans. RESULTS. Preliminary results show the predicted cultural differences for crewmembers in flight. As hypothesized, the level of fatigue covaries significantly with the level of depression among Russians but not among Americans. At the meeting, we will present final results and compare these to those of our previous studies. CONCLUSIONS. These results are consistent with the Russian concept of asthenization, which is believed to be an important early indicator of stress during long-duration space missions. Future work should examine this phenomenon further to see if culture based syndromes truly exist in space missions. It is important to use culturally appropriate assessment strategies in order to detect stress reactions accurately while they are still mild, because they have the potential to seriously disrupt future international space missions, such as a flight to Mars.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-A1.5.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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