Psychosomatic medicine
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Psychosomatic medicine · Feb 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialEffects of age on responsiveness to adjunct hypnotic analgesia during invasive medical procedures.
To assess the effects of age on responsiveness to self-hypnotic relaxation as an analgesic adjunct in patients undergoing invasive medical procedures. ⋯ Older patients are hypnotizable and increasing age does not appear to mitigate the usefulness of hypnotic analgesia during invasive medical procedures.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jan 2007
Alexithymia in chronic fatigue syndrome: associations with momentary, recall, and retrospective measures of somatic complaints and emotions.
The relationship between alexithymia and real-time momentary symptom assessments has not been reported. This cross-sectional study hypothesized that alexithymia would be a predictor of somatic symptoms using three different types of symptom measurement (momentary, recall, and retrospective) in the medically unexplained illness of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). In addition, it was hypothesized that negative affect would be a significant mediator of the relationship between alexithymia and somatic symptoms. Finally, the relation of alexithymia to physical illness attribution (a CFS illness predictor) was explored. ⋯ Based on assessments of real-time and retrospectively measured symptoms, these data provided only modest support for the alexithymia construct as a predictor of somatic symptoms in people with CFS.
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Cancer-related distress due to the psychological and physical challenges of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) may result in symptoms of depression, which negatively affects quality and may influence quantity of life. This study investigated how depression affects MBC stress reactivity, including autonomic (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. ⋯ Depression in patients with MBC was associated with alterations in autonomic regulation, particularly reductions in respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a measure of cardiac vagal control, at baseline and during the TSST. In addition, depression was associated with blunted HPA response to awakening. Both MBC groups had relative cortisol hyporesponsiveness to acute stress.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Sep 2006
Selective processing of gastrointestinal symptom-related stimuli in irritable bowel syndrome.
We sought to determine whether irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) was associated with attentional bias toward symptom-related cues in IBS patients versus healthy controls, using a modified Stroop task to measure selective processing of gastrointestinal symptom-related cues. ⋯ These results indicate that IBS patients selectively process gastrointestinal symptom-related words compared with neutral words when they are presented subliminally but not when they are presented supraliminally. In contrast, healthy controls demonstrate the opposite pattern. Implications for the cognitive mechanisms in IBS, and future research directions, are discussed.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jul 2006
Comparative StudyVagal and sympathetic activity in burnouts during a mentally demanding workday.
We study differences in task performance and related sympathetic-vagal reaction patterns between burnouts and controls during a mentally demanding workday. ⋯ Burnouts and healthy controls differ in their pattern of sympathetic-vagal activity only after long-lasting work demands. Findings give limited support to Porges's view that in healthy subjects, the vagal system is more responsive to challenging task situations than in chronically stressed individuals. The distinction between two phases in the burnout on the basis of behavioral and physiological characteristics is discussed.