Purpose: To better understand the experiences and potential unmet need of persons who die in long-term care. Design and Methods: We conducted after-death interviews with staff who had cared for 422 decedents with dementia and 159 who were cognitively intact and received terminal care in U.S. nursing homes (NHs) or residential care-assisted living…

Hypothesizes that at least some suicidal individuals are characterized by disposition toward dissociation manifested in relative insensitivity to physical pain and indifference to their bodies. Three main topics are discussed: dissociation and suicide, psychological aspects of pain, and pain and suicide. (Author/NB)

Describes an educational game for nurses involving questions related to pain assessment and management and the standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. (SK)

Purpose: This article presents an overview of what is known about dementia services in assisted living settings and suggests areas for future research. Design and Methods: We undertook a search of Medline, the "Journals of Gerontology," and "The Gerontologist." We then organized publications dealing with the target subject into 10 topic areas and…

The prevalence and cost of chronic pain is a major physical and mental health care problem in the United States today. As a result, there has been a recent explosion of research on chronic pain, with significant advances in better understanding its etiology, assessment, and treatment. The purpose of the present article is to provide a review of…

Psychosocial treatments for chronic pain are effective. There is a need, however, to understand the processes involved in determining how these treatments contribute to behavior change. Control and acceptance strategies represent two potentially important processes involved in treatment, although they differ significantly in approach. Results from…

Headaches are quite common in children and adolescents, and they appear to persist into adulthood in a sizable number of individuals. Assessment approaches (interview, pain diaries, and general and specific questionnaires) and behavioral treatment interventions (contingency management, relaxation, biofeedback, and cognitive behavior therapy) are…

Consolidation refers to item stabilization in long-term memory. Retrieval renders a consolidated memory sensitive, and a "reconsolidation" process has been hypothesized to keep the original memory persistent. Some authors could not detect this phenomenon. Here we show that retrieved contextual fear memory is vulnerable to amnesic treatments and…

Objective: The construct of empathy was examined in 20 boys with gender identity disorder (GID), 20 clinical control boys with externalizing disorders (ECC), 20 community control boys (NCB), and 20 community control girls (NCG). The mean age of the children was 6.86 years (range = 4-8 years). It was hypothesized that boys with GID would show…

This study examined whether having a depressed parent intensifies the secondary deficits that often co-occur with offspring's depression symptoms. The sample was adult offspring of parents who had been diagnosed with depression 23 years earlier (N = 143) and demographically matched nondepressed parents (N = 197). Respondents completed mailed…

Psychophysiologic research indicates that muscle-contraction headache often is not characterized by excessive or unusual muscular activity, and muscular changes seldom accompany headache improvement resulting from treatment. Multidimensional models have been proposed, which emphasize the interdependence of physiological and psychological systems…

Nine brief onsite educational sessions of 10-20 minutes each trained nurses in pain management techniques. Participants recognized the value of brief presentations, but wanted more time to learn the material. The content was made available on disk for further study. (SK)

This article presents a pragmatic approach to the definition, diagnosis, and management of anterior knee pain. Symptoms and treatment are described. Emphasis is on active involvement of the patient in the rehabilitation exercise program. (IAH)

Examined association between depression and scores on Cognitive Errors Questionnaire. Depressed chronic pain patients (n=17) and depressed nonpain patients (n=15) reported more cognitive distortion than did nondepressed pain patients (n=12) and normal controls (n=19). Results support relevance of cognitive theory in explication of clinically…

In the United States, 42% of adults say they experience pain daily, the majority often relying on self-treatment. In addition, an increasing number of people are seeking complementary/alternative therapies, often without informing their health care providers. Purpose: To explore the occurrence of pain and the modalities of self-treatment used by…