The Clinical journal of pain
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School anxiety is a prevalent and debilitating mental health problem among youth with chronic pain. Despite evidence that anxiety in the context of school is associated with significant school-related disability, no studies have examined specific aspects of school anxiety in a pediatric chronic pain population. ⋯ Present results offer a nuanced perspective into the underlying sources of school anxiety among adolescents with chronic pain. Our findings may inform future research efforts and targeted school functioning interventions. In particular, findings suggest that an individualized approach to the assessment of school anxiety which considers the unique sources of anxiety (eg, social vs. academic) may lay the groundwork for the refinement of school functioning interventions in pediatric chronic pain.
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Sleep disturbance and chronic pain are related. The present study evaluated both direct and indirect (mediated) pathways through which sleep disturbance might be related to chronic pain intensity and function. ⋯ Sleep disturbance was related significantly with chronic pain intensity and function by both direct and indirect pathways. These results are consistent with an emerging literature highlighting the potential significance of sleep disturbance in chronic pain patients, and provide further support for addressing sleep disturbance in the assessment and management of chronic pain.
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Widespread pain is important for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM). For this purpose, the sum of pain regions obtained from a topographical distribution has been used to compute a Widespread Pain Index (WPI), but there is no empirical basis for choosing the regions. The aim of this study was to find an empirical distribution of the pain regions. ⋯ WPIE has a normal distribution and shows better predictive qualities than WPIR. The emotional factor is conceptualized as emotional because of the relative importance of the right hemisphere in negative emotions and pain. The physical factor could be responsible for the decreased ability to coordinate left-right stepping.
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The present study aimed to: (1) better understand physical activity levels in youth with chronic abdominal pain and (2) investigate the relationship between day-level physical activity related to next day pain intensity to identify any intraindividual heterogeneity. ⋯ The current study highlights the importance of separating between-person and within-person differences when examining the relationship between physical activity and pain severity. Future studies should explore moderating factors that may help to explain random effects to better understand the types of individuals with positive or negative relationships between physical activity and pain severity.