Journal of behavioral medicine
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This original empirical study examined effects of a psycho-educational intervention on cancer patients' knowledge, concern, and preferences for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). We examined message framing as one factor that might impact subsequent decision making. In addition, we examined personality and coping style as predictors and moderators of patients' reactions to an informational intervention. ⋯ Message framing of survival data did not uniquely affect CPR preference. Higher optimism predicted less increase in concern about CPR, and higher hope predicted greater decrease in preference for CPR. More approach coping related to increased concern about CPR and decreased preference for CPR.
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There is growing recognition that persistent pain is a complex and multidimensional experience stemming from the interrelationship among biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. Chronic pain patients use a number of cognitive and behavioral strategies to cope with their pain, including religious/spiritual forms of coping, such as prayer, and seeking spiritual support to manage their pain. This article will explore the relationship between the experience of pain and religion/spirituality with the aim of understanding not only why some people rely on their faith to cope with pain, but also how religion/spirituality may impact the experience of pain and help or hinder the coping process. We will also identify future research priorities that may provide fruitful research in illuminating the relationship between religion/spirituality and pain.
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Historically, investigations of coping with chronic pain primarily have sought methods for gaining greater control over pain and pain-related distress. Recently, it has been suggested to expand the framework of coping so that control efforts are redirected from circumstances where they fail, and so that coping can more explicitly incorporate potentially more practical and flexible notions of acceptance. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the role of control-oriented and acceptance-oriented coping responses for patient functioning using a prospective design. ⋯ The factor representing more or less traditional pain management methods showed surprisingly limited relations with aspects of patient functioning. Analyses of concurrent change in coping and functioning highlighted a unique, apparently unhelpful, role of Pain Control. These results support the inclusion of contextual acceptance-related processes in current frameworks for understanding adjustment to chronic pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Anger management style and endogenous opioid function: is gender a moderator?
This study explored possible gender moderation of previously reported associations between elevated trait anger-out and reduced endogenous opioid analgesia. One hundred forty-five healthy participants underwent acute electrocutaneous pain stimulation after placebo and oral opioid blockade in separate sessions. Blockade effects were derived reflecting changes in pain responses induced by opioid blockade. ⋯ The anger-in/opioid association was partially due to overlap with anger-out, but the converse was not true. These findings provide additional evidence of an association between trait anger-out and endogenous opioid analgesia, but further suggest that gender may moderate these effects. In contrast to past work, anger-in was related to reduced opioid analgesia, although overlap with anger-out may contribute to this finding.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Attentional strategy moderates effects of pain catastrophizing on symptom-specific physiological responses in chronic low back pain patients.
In the present study, we examined whether experimentally-manipulated attentional strategies moderated relations between pain catastrophizing and symptom-specific physiological responses to a cold-pressor task among sixty-eight chronic low back patients. Patients completed measures of pain catastrophizing and depression, and were randomly assigned to sensory focus, distraction or suppression conditions during a cold pressor. Lumbar paraspinal and trapezius EMG, and cardiovascular responses to the cold pressor were assessed. ⋯ Depressed affect did not account for this relation. These findings indicate that 'symptom-specific' responses among pain catastrophizers with chronic low back depend on how they attend to pain-related information. Specifically, it appears that efforts to suppress awareness of pain exaggerate muscular responses near the site of injury.