Coping with cancer

This study examined coping strategies in head and neck cancer patients. The relationships between the use of approach and avoidant coping strategies and the physical and emotional distress of 35 newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients during the early stages of cancer treatment were evaluated. Patients were categorized on the basis of coping strategy at the time of diagnosis and then evaluated twice during the course of their treatment at four- to six-week intervals. Cancer patients who predominantly employed either approach or avoidant strategies had lower initial levels of emotional distress than patients who did not use either of these strategies. Although symptoms of distress decreased in patients using approach or avoidance, symptoms increased for those patients who did not use these strategies. The level of stress for this cancer population is highest at the point of confirmed diagnosis and recedes during the course of treatment. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Coping with change

Extreme Environmental Change and Evolution by A.A. Hoffmann and P.A. Parsons Cambridge University Press, 1997. ￡55.00/$74.95 hbk, ￡19.95/$29.95 pbk (xii+259 pages) ISBN 0 521 44107 2/0 521 44659 7.     

应对高山反应

现在越来越多的人喜欢探险，旅游，高海拔地区更受到青睐，游了云贵川又想去青海，西藏转一转，但想到西藏的高海拔却又使人望而生畏。其实，只要有良好的身体状况，做好充分的准备，还是可以出行的，但如果不顾自己的身体状况，盲目去高海拔地区旅游或探险就很可能会出问题！     

Coping with Phantom Limb Pain

Phantom limb pain is a chronic neuropathic pain that develops in 45–85% of patients who undergo major amputations of the upper and lower extremities and appears predominantly during two time frames following an amputation: the first month and later about 1 year. Although in most patients the frequency and intensity of pain diminish over time, severe pain persists in about 5–10%. It has been proposed that factors in both the peripheral and central nervous systems play major roles in triggering the development and maintenance of pain associated with extremity amputations. Chronic pain is physically and mentally debilitating, affecting an individual’s capacity for self-care, but also diminishing an individual’s daily capacity for personal and economic independence. In addition, the pain may lead to depression and feelings of hopelessness. A National Center for Biotechnology Information study found that in the USA alone, the annual cost of dealing with neuropathic pain is more than $600 billion, with an estimated 20 million people in the USA suffering from this condition. Although the pain can be reduced by antiepileptic drugs and analgesics, they are frequently ineffective or their side effects preclude their use. The optimal approach for eliminating neuropathic pain and improving individuals’ quality of life is the development of novel techniques that permanently prevent the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain, or that eliminate the pain once it has developed. What is still required is understanding when and where an effective novel technique must be applied, such as onto the nerve stump of the transected peripheral axons, dorsal root ganglion neurons, spinal cord, or cortex to induce the desired influences. This review, the second of two in this journal volume, examines the techniques that may be capable of reducing or eliminating chronic neuropathic pain once it has developed. Such an understanding will improve amputees’ quality of life by blocking the mechanisms that trigger and/or maintain PLP and chronic neuropathic pain.     

Religious Coping with Chronic Pain

This study examined the role of religious and nonreligious cognitive-behavioral coping in a sample of 61 chronic pain patients from a midwestern pain clinic. Participants described their chronic pain and indicated their use of religious and nonreligious cognitive-behavioral coping strategies. Results supported a multidimensional conceptualization of religious coping that includes both positive and negative strategies. Positive religious coping strategies were associated significantly with positive affect and religious outcome after statistically controlling for demographic variables. In contrast, measures of negative religious coping strategies were not associated significantly with outcome variables. Several significant associations also were found between nonreligious cognitive-behavioral coping strategies and outcome variables. The results underscore the need for further research concerning the contributions of religious coping in adjustment to chronic pain. Practitioners of applied psychophysiology should assess their chronic pain patients' religious appraisals and religious coping as another important stress management strategy.