International journal of behavioral medicine
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Clinical Trial
Impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on sleep, mood, stress and fatigue symptoms in cancer outpatients.
Sleep disturbance is a very common problem for cancer patients that has largely not been addressed in the clinical intervention literature. Mindfulness meditation has demonstrated clinical benefits for a variety of patient populations in other areas of functioning. ⋯ There was also a significant reduction in stress (p < .001), mood disturbance (p = .001), and fatigue (p < .001). The associations among these changes and implications for improving quality of life of cancer patients are discussed.
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This study was designed to examine whether brief training in cognitive coping skills would enhance pain coping strategies and alter pain perception in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). Forty-nine participants with SCD were randomly assigned to either a cognitive coping skills condition or a standard care control condition. At pre- and posttesting, coping strategies and pain sensitivity using laboratory pain stimulation were measured. Results indicated that in comparison to the randomly assigned control condition, brief training in cognitive coping skills resulted in decreased negative thinking and lower pain ratings during low intensity laboratory pain stimulation.
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We investigated the role of conditioning experiences and response expectancies in the generation of placebo effects. On 3 sequential days (Test 1, Experimental Session, Test 2), 66 female undergraduates were presented with a series of pain stimuli. For the experimental group, placebo administration (analgesic cream) was paired with a decrease in the painful stimulus. ⋯ Mere verbal persuasion was not sufficient to elicit placebo-induced pain reduction. Irrespective of the experimental manipulations, the placebo effect was related to both reduced pain expectations and reduced fear of pain. Although conditioned placebo responses were evident at the subjective level, no placebo effects emerged at the physiological level.
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Subjective disability is considered as the variable that reflects the impact of chronic pain on a patient's life. This study examines the questions of which syndrome or patient characteristics determine subjective disability and whether there are differences between samples of patients with chronic headaches and low back pain. Direct pain variables and depression, pain coping strategies, and pain-related self-statements (including catastrophizing) are introduced into multivariate regression analyses as potential predictors of disability using a sample of 151 pain patients. ⋯ In this study, we present a critical analysis of possible interpretations of our results. We point to an overlap of concepts underlying some of the variables used: this overlap also considerably invalidates conclusions drawn from a multitude of studies done in this field, including the one presented. We strongly argue for a conceptual clarification, and consequently for the revision of assessment instruments, before further empirical work in this area is done.