Psychotherapy and psychosomatics
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Psychother Psychosom · Jan 2010
ReviewFunctional abdominal pain in childhood: from etiology to maladaptation.
To review the extant literature on functional abdominal pain in childhood through the lens of the developmental psychopathology perspective and to systematize research results by means of a two-stage pathway model in which the emergence of functional abdominal pain and its potential transition into a somatoform adjustment disorder is outlined. ⋯ It seems that those children with functional abdominal pain who cannot adapt to the pain indeed run the risk of developing a somatoform adjustment disorder.
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Psychother Psychosom · Jan 2010
Randomized Controlled TrialAlexithymia and cancer pain: the effect of psychological intervention.
Alexithymia is likely to be involved in the pain experience of cancer patients, but the extent to which psychological interventions may modify both pain and alexithymia is unclear. ⋯ These findings confirm the close association between alexithymia and pain, and show that multicomponent psychological intervention may significantly reduce both alexithymia and cancer pain. Although the present findings need replication, they should strongly encourage clinicians to provide patients with psychological interventions targeting alexithymic difficulties and helping patients to cope better with both feelings and somatic perception.
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Psychother Psychosom · Jan 2010
Age-specific associations between cardiac vagal activity and functional somatic symptoms: a population-based study.
Functional somatic symptoms (FSS) are symptoms not explained by underlying organic pathology. It has frequently been suggested that dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) contributes to the development of FSS. We hypothesized that decreased cardiac vagal activity is cross-sectionally and prospectively associated with the number of FSS in the general population. ⋯ Decreased cardiac vagal activity is associated with a higher number of FSS in adults aged