Undermanaged procedural pain has been shown to have short and long term effects on children. While significant progress regarding empirically supported treatments has been made, theoretical bases for the development and management of procedural pain are lacking. This paper examines the role of social learning theory in our current understanding of…

Arthritis is a condition often associated with the elderly. However, arthritis affects approximately 275,000 children nationwide. Symptoms may vary from one swollen joint to multiply affected joints coupled with fatigue, fever, and rash. Its effect on the school-age child can range from missing a few days of school per year to hospitalizations…

The effectiveness and safety of a group aquatic aerobic exercise program on cardiorespiratory endurance for children with disabilities was examined using an A-B study design. Sixteen children (11 males, five females) age range 6 to 11 years (mean age 9y 7mo [SD 1y 4mo]) participated in this twice-per-week program lasting 14 weeks. The children's …

A multiple-baseline-across two behavior sets and positions (reclined, upright) was used to experimentally examine the effect of Behavioral Activation Treatment for Pain (BAT-P) on pain-related behavior of a 44-year-old woman with a 22-year history of fibromyalgia (FM). BAT-P, based on the matching law, is comprised of Behavioral Relaxation…

A concurrent mixed methods approach was used to understand how learned resourcefulness empowers individuals. After completing Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule (SCS) measuring resourcefulness, 16 past clients of a multimodal pain clinic were interviewed about the kinds of pain-coping strategies they were practicing from the program. Constant…

Cognitive behavioral therapists may have a unique and growing role in orthopedics departments. In helping patients cope with pain, particularly where there is no specific biomedical treatment or cure, cognitive behavioral practitioners can help prevent, early on, the transition from an acute pain complaint to a costly, disabling, and interfering…

This study investigated the psychosocial factors affecting the quality of life (QOL) of 171 individuals with chronic pain. Participants completed a battery of self-rated inventories measuring three sets of predictor variables--demographic (age, gender, income, marital status), pain-specific (chronicity, severity, duration, frequency, pain…

The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion and research about patient suffering and caregiver compassion. It is our view that these constructs are central to understanding phenomena such as family caregiving, and that recognizing their unique role in the caregiving experience provides new directions for intervention research, clinical…

Background: School absenteeism and other impairments in school function are significant problems among children with chronic pain syndromes; yet, little is known about how chronic pain is perceived in the school setting. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' attributions about the causes of chronic pain in adolescent students.…

Pain catastrophizing is generally viewed as an important cognitive factor underlying chronic pain. The present study examined personality and temperament correlates of pain catastrophizing in a sample of young adolescents (N = 132). Participants completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children, as well as scales for measuring sensitivity of…

Background: Meaningful communication with people with profound communication difficulties depends on the ability of carers to recognize and translate many different verbal cues. Carers appear to be intuitively skilled at identifying distress cues, but have little confidence in their observations. To help in this process, a number of pain tools…

This study examined the sensitivity and false-positive error rate of reliable digit span (RDS) and the WAIS-III Digit Span (DS) scaled score in persons alleging toxic exposure and determined whether error rates differed from published rates in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic pain (CP). Data were obtained from the files of 123 persons…

Background: Pain interferes with the functioning of typical children, but no study has examined its effect on children with pre-existing intellectual disabilities (ID). Methods: Caregivers of 63 children observed their children for 2-h periods and recorded in 1-week diaries: pain presence, cause, intensity and duration. Caregivers also recorded…

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the reasons for which migrant agricultural workers in Pennsylvania seek health care. Methods: Participants were individuals 14 years of age and over, actively involved in agricultural labor and presenting for medical care at 6 migrant health care centers. Bilingual health care providers…

Mass psychogenic response (MPR), also referred to as epidemic hysteria, mass hysteria, or mass psychological illness, has been identified for over 600 years. MPR is a syndrome comprising a collection of symptoms, which are consistent with organic illness, but lack an identifiable cause, and which rapidly spread through socially connected groups…