Der Schmerz
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In the field of headache disorders, the term "fear of attacks" refers to the fear of a headache attack occurring. Excessive fear of attacks may worsen the course of a migraine and lead to an increase in migraine activity. In the assessment of attack-related fear, a categorical (fear of attacks as a specific phobia) and a dimensional approach (measuring the extent of fear using a questionnaire) are available. ⋯ The treatment of attack-related fear includes behavioral interventions as well as pharmacological therapy. Behavioral interventions have few side effects and are based on the treatment of common anxiety disorders (e.g., agoraphobia). Although the evidence of existing treatments is sparse, attack-related fear should be considered in routine care.
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Narrative Medicine is an interdisciplinary concept that joins literary texts and theory on the one hand with medical education on the other. It suggests that specific skills can be practiced by reflecting about literature and the arts, which represent existential human experiences. These skills are narrative competence, tolerance for ambiguity, changing one's perspective, empathy, and self-care. ⋯ Literary texts in a medical classroom can be a productive resource to practice and critically discuss competences identified in the National Competency-Based Learning Objective Catalogue for Medicine 2.0.
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For a long time, biblical views of pain were used to relieve and legitimize suffering. Nowadays, however, pain is seen as an evil to be fought. Despite this difference, it is worth researching the variety of images of pain in the Old Testament in order to include them in current debates. ⋯ Social and political upheavals played a crucial role in the development of Old Testament images of pain. That is why the ultimate cause of pain is only partially attributed to the divine, but more to human violence structures. The texts focus their hope on God as a deliverer from distress because he allows himself to be affected by pain.
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The concept of resilience is becoming increasingly disseminated from material science into various fields of science. It is infiltrating medical fields predominantly via psychology and is also recommended for coping with the special burdens in pain management and palliative care. A precise definition of the term and its operationalization pose problems. ⋯ There is a lack of qualified contributions of palliative research to the metadiscourse about resilience, especially in the context of affected patients. A successful operationalization of the term requires a highly complex multidimensionality of the palliative path of an interdisciplinary approach. There is a lack of ethical standards that prevent an affirmative instrumentalizing application of the term.