Effectiveness of spontaneous pain coping strategies for acute pain management: A laboratory study.

The aim of the present study has been to analyze the relationship between the use of not previously trained, diverse acute pain coping strategies and levels of pain intensity and pain tolerance in a group of healthy participants. Previous research has analyzed the usefulness of the training of these strategies after several training sessions, but adequate patient training requires a great deal of time. Two hundred and forty healthy people participated in the study. Pain coping strategies was evaluated with a version of CSQ-S. Subsequently, the participants completed a cold pressor test and tolerance test. After that, subjects filled in the adaptation of the CSQ-S about the strategies which they had employed throughout the test. Correlation analyses showed a positive relationship between pain intensity and catastrophizing, distractor behaviors, hoping and ignoring the pain. Pain tolerance correlated with self-instructions, ignoring the pain, reinterpreting the pain, catastrophizing and faith and praying. Regression analyses showed that catastrophizing was found to be the strategy that most predicts the variance of pain intensity, and catastrophizing (negative) and ignoring the pain (positive) and praying (negative) were the most predictive ones for pain tolerance. This is the first laboratory study that identifies the more useful pain coping strategies which can be used by patients without previous training in an acute pain context. The results of this study could be useful in the development of protocols for nurses and other health professionals, especially for situations where potentially painful techniques are to be applied to patients.

Cardiovascular Responses of Women with Fibromyalgia to a Laboratory Stressor: Does Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Comorbidity Matter?

OBJECTIVES: This study compared cardiovascular responses to a laboratory trauma-unrelated stressor of two groups of women diagnosed with fibromyalgia (FM), one of them with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with a group of healthy controls in order to detect the possible existence of differences linked to comorbidity. DESIGN: Case-controls. METHODS: Eighteen women diagnosed with FM and comorbid PTSD, 18 women diagnosed with FM and no PTSD, and 38 healthy women were exposed to an arithmetic task with harassment while blood pressure and heart rate were measured during task exposure and recovery. RESULTS: Although heart rate response evidenced a general blunted reactivity for both groups of FM patients, only those with comorbid PTSD presented lower levels of reactivity in terms of their systolic blood pressure response. In addition, systolic blood pressure response was sensitive to the presence of depression in both groups of FM patients and controls. Finally, although both groups of FM patients showed significantly slower rates of recovery, their final recovery state was not worse after twelve minutes of recording. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study point to comorbid PTSD as a significant contributor to the blunted cardiovascular reactivity observed in FM patients, which may be dependent to a great extent on depressive symptomatology. As some degree of cardiovascular response to stress is functional in that it mobilizes energy and triggers the necessary compensatory mechanisms to manage stressors, this study supports the well-recognized clinical strategies of detection and treatment of PTSD and concomitant depression in the management of FM.

SOURCES OF STRESS AND RECOVERY AS CONCURRENT PREDICTORS OF THE AFFECT BALANCE OF PATIENTS WITH FIBROMYALGIA.

This study examined sources of stress and recovery in a group of 107 patients with fibromyalgia (M age = 50.4 yr., SD = 11.8), in comparison to a control group of 68 healthy participants (M age = 47.8 yr., SD = 8.1) of equivalent age and marital status. Between-group differences in sources of stress and recovery were examined by means of an independent samples t test. In addition, between-groups differences in the relationship between sources of stress and recovery and affect balance were explored through a multi-group SEM analysis. The results provided evidence in support of the hypothesis that fibromyalgia patients find fewer sources of recovery and that the contribution of such sources for improving their affective well-being is lower than in healthy individuals. Relevant clinical implications were discussed.

Early maladaptive schemas as a risk factor for fibromyalgia: A case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: There is evidence supporting the relationship between early stress and childhood trauma and the development of fibromyalgia (FM). Early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are considered a consequence of early stress. Previous research has shown their role in maintaining stress responses and their relevance in other populations with pain. The main aim of this study has been to analyze the presence of EMSs in patients with FM compared to healthy adult women. In addition, the relationship between the strength of EMSs and pain intensity was tested. METHOD: The total sample consisted of 167 women: 83 patients with FM and 84 healthy controls. RESULTS: Chi-square analyses showed that the percentage of participants with clinically significant scores is higher for patients with FM in 11 of the 18 EMSs evaluated. Moreover, discriminant analyses revealed that these EMS are useful to discriminate between FM and healthy controls, classifying 74.2% of original cases. In relation to the second aim, the mean pain intensity correlated with the strength of several EMSs: approval seeking, unrelenting standards, insufficient self-control, and mistrust/abuse. CONCLUSIONS: The current study highlights that a high rate of patients with FM have clinically significant EMSs compared to healthy matched controls, as has been found in other populations with pain. Besides, this study provides initial evidence that EMSs are positively associated with the pain experienced by patients with FM, suggesting the existence of a possible association between early stress and pain. Therefore, taking EMSs into account could be of great relevance to clinicians. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Stressors and uplifts of confinement due to covid-19: A longitudinal study on mental health in a sample of academic and administrative university staff in Spain.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 caused many countries to decide to enter full lockdown, a circumstance that impacted all aspects of life, including mental health. The present longitudinal study aimed to analyse how stressors and uplifts of confinement were linked to psychological symptoms at three different time points: during the full lockdown (wave 1), after the gradual lifting of restrictions (wave 2) and after confinement (wave 3). The sample was made up by one hundred and twenty academic and administrative staff from a big University in Spain, they all completed an online survey. Results showed that psychological status did not change over time, but a significant interindividual variability was found throughout. Some stressors were only linked to symptoms at wave 1, but others maintained their associations during waves 2 and 3. Uplifts were, for the most part, inversely (and exclusively) linked to symptoms at wave 1. However, some of them, although enjoyable, were paradoxically linked to worse mental health at wave 1, and even at waves 2 and 3. These findings highlight the importance of providing preventive psychological strategies for mental distress before, during and after confinement.

Stress-Recovery State in Fibromyalgia Patients and Healthy People. Relationship with the Cardiovascular Response to Stress in Laboratory Conditions.

The current study´s objective was to determine the relationship between stress-recovery state and cardiovascular response to an acute stressor in a sample of female fibromyalgia patients in comparison with a control group of healthy participants. The laboratory procedure was completed by 36 participants with fibromyalgia and by 38 healthy women who were exposed to an arithmetic task with harassment while blood pressure and heart rate were measured during task exposure.

The Modification of Vital Signs According to Nursing Students' Experiences Undergoing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training via High-Fidelity Simulation: Quasi-Experimental Study.

BACKGROUND: High-fidelity simulation represents a primary tool in nursing education, especially when hands-on practical training is involved. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the influence of high-fidelity clinical simulation, applied during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, on blood pressure, heart rate, stress, and anxiety levels in 2 groups of nursing students. One group had experience in health contexts, whereas the other group had none. METHODS: We performed a quasi-experimental study. Data were collected between May and June 2015 and included measurements of all the resting values, before and after participation in CPR clinical simulations regarding the 2 groups of university students (ie, with and without experience). RESULTS: An increase in vital signs was observed in students after participating in a clinical simulation scenario, especially the heart rate. In all students, increased stress and anxiety levels were observed before the first simulation case scenario. Also, in all study groups, a decrease in vital signs, stress levels, and anxiety was observed throughout the study. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in high-fidelity simulation experiences has both physiological and psychological effects on students.