Psychological influences on pain perception and non-pharmacologic approaches to the treatment of pain.

Pain is a complex process, in part because it is mediated by so many different variables. However, because pain is the primary reason for seeking medical treatment and often a barrier to compliance, therapists treating painful disorders or injuries need to be familiar with those factors that influence pain perception and treatment approaches. How individuals perceive pain, and hence how clinicians treat it, depends upon a wide variety of psychosocial factors, including mood, age, gender, expectations, social support, and perceptions of control. Even the manner with which therapists interact with patients can minimize the pain experience and ultimately impact compliance and recovery rates. This paper overviews the multifaceted nature of pain by outlining how psychologic variables impact pain experiences. In addition, this article reviews a number of nonpharmacologic techniques and approaches (i.e., distraction, imagery, relaxation, biofeedback) that are available for assisting patients in dealing with pain.

Increasing perceptions of disease vulnerability through imagery.

Increasing the cognitive availability of disease symptoms can increase perceptions of vulnerability to a fictitious disease. Research findings have also suggested that men and women respond differently to AIDS information; nevertheless, prior research has failed to examine the effects of imagery on both male and female perceptions of vulnerability to a real disease, such as AIDS. Undergraduates were presented with symptoms that were either hard to imagine or easy to imagine (labeled as related to either AIDS or hyposcenia-B) that the students then read or imagined. The results, which replicated prior research, indicated that imagining disease symptoms altered the students' perceived vulnerability to a fictitious disease. However, only imagery was significantly related to perceived vulnerability to AIDS, and gender interacted with this imagery process. Women expressed significant increases in perceived vulnerability when reading the disease symptoms, whereas men were more vulnerable when imagining the disease symptoms than they were when they read about the symptoms. The authors discuss the implications of their research for the integration of theory and experimentation in designing AIDS-intervention programs.

Weight control practices of lightweight football players.

The objective of this research was to investigate the weight control practices of lightweight football players. In addition, the importance of several variables was examined for their clinical importance and ability to identify individuals at high risk for pathogenic eating behaviors. Male college lightweight football players (N = 131) were administered a 45-item version of the Diagnostic Survey For Eating Disorders (9). Results revealed that 74% had experienced binge eating, and 17% had experienced self-induced vomiting. During the month preceding questionnaire administration, 66% had fasted, nearly 4% had used laxatives, while less than 2.5% had used diet pills, diuretics, or enemas for the purpose of weight control. Furthermore, the "teacher/coach" seemed to be the individual who motivated dieting behavior, and more than 20% of the sample reported that their weight control practices interfered with their thoughts and extracurricular activities "often" or "always." Most importantly, 42% of the sample evidenced a pattern of dysfunctional eating, while 9.9% of the sample engaged in binge-purge behavior to the degree that it might represent an eating disorder. Finally, discriminant the degree that it might represent an eating disorder. Finally, discriminant analysis yielded several variables that might be useful in identifying individuals at risk for pathogenic eating behaviors.