The British journal of clinical psychology / the British Psychological Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effects of imagery and sensory detection distractors on different measures of pain: how does distraction work?
Two experiments compared the effects of different distraction tasks on pain. Based on multiple-resource theory, Expt 1 predicted that the more a distractor shares processing resources with pain perception the greater the interference between the two. Experiment 2 tested whether the emotional content of the distractor would differentially effect measures that are supposedly reflective of the affective component of pain. ⋯ These results indicate that a task that requires attention to external cues has more impact on pain than either a positive or neutral imagination task. However, it is not clear that the specific resources used by the distraction tasks moderated pain differentially as predicted by multiple-resource theory.
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Two experiments investigating the presence of information-processing biases on tasks of attention (Stroop task) and memory (free recall) in relation to mood states in chronic pain patients are reported. The first investigates whether previously reported attentional bias is a function of pain status or mood state. The second describes a more detailed examination of the roles of anxiety and depression in processing biases in chronic pain patients. ⋯ Interference in attending to emotionally salient stimuli appears to be related to measures of anxiety and depression rather than pain per se. When added to the findings of other investigators, these results suggest that the presence of attentional biases in chronic pain patients can best be accounted for as arising from mood state rather than pain-patient status.
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Head injuries are common in industrialized countries and the majority of them are defined as 'minor' or 'mild' injuries (MHI). These terms, however, can be misleading because the sequelae that often follow such injuries can cause significant detriment to psychosocial and interpersonal functioning Clinical psychologists in most areas of specialism are likely to encounter MHI because of their high frequency and the types of problems they can cause. ⋯ This paper reviews the literature concerning the neuropathology, measurement, sequelae and recovery of MHI. The following subjects are addressed: (i) the relationship between the neuropathology of severe head injury and the neuropathology of MHI; (ii) the limitations of traditional measures of head injury severity (e.g. post-traumatic amnesia) when applied to MHI; (iii) factors relevant to the recovery of post-concussion symptoms following MHI; and (iv) intervention and treatment following MHI.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Endorsement and memory bias of self-referential pain stimuli in depressed pain patients.
This study investigates information processing in chronic pain patients by comparing the responses of depressed pain patients, non-depressed pain patients and non-pain control subjects. Each subject contributed two scores: endorsement of adjectives as descriptors of themselves and their best-friends; and free recall of the presented words. ⋯ Further analysis revealed that depressed pain patients exhibited a bias towards self-referential negative pain words, but not towards self-referential negative depression information. These results are interpreted in line with content specificity theory of information processing and have implications for targeting cognitive interventions with pain patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Behavioural rehabilitation of chronic low back pain: comparison of an operant treatment, an operant-cognitive treatment and an operant-respondent treatment.
Seventy-one chronic low back pain patients were assigned to one of three behavioural rehabilitation treatments or a waiting-list condition. The first intervention consisted of an operant treatment, aimed at increasing health behaviours and activity levels and at reducing pain and illness behaviours. In the second intervention, a cognitive treatment, aimed at the reinterpretation of catastrophizing pain cognitions and at enhancing self-control, was combined with an operant treatment. ⋯ This differential effect among the conditions is maintained at follow-up. Patients who received the OC and OR treatments catastrophize less than OP patients, and OC patients showed better scores on outcome-efficacy than OR patients. In general, the results suggest that behavioural rehabilitation programmes for chronic low back pain are effective and that the effects of an operant treatment are magnified when self-control techniques are added.