INTRODUCTION Classification of vaginal pain within medical or psychiatric diagnostic systems draws mainly on the presumed presence or absence (respectively) of underlying medical etiology. A focus on the experience of pain, rather than etiology, emphasizes common ground in the aims of treatment to improve pain and sexual, emotional, and cognitive experience. Thus, exploring how vaginal pain con...

BACKGROUND Long-term conditions may negatively impact multiple aspects of quality of life including physical functioning and mental wellbeing. The rapid systematic review aimed to examine the effectiveness of psychological interventions to improve quality of life in people with long-term conditions to inform future healthcare provision and research. METHODS EBSCOhost and OVID were used to sea...

OBJECTIVE This study compared changes in bodily pain, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and psychological symptoms during an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program among groups of participants with different chronic pain conditions. METHODS From 1997-2003, a longitudinal investigation of chronic pain patients (n=133) was nested within a larger prospective cohort study ...

Emotional and evaluative issues are very important in the evaluation and treatment of pain. Treating the physical pain alone can leave these issues unresolved, and possibly exacerbate them through reinforcement. Understanding the impact of fear, expectations, and attention can help physicians deal more effectively with acute pain. Psychological issues are particularly prominent in chronic pain....

Perceiving, for all its nicety of functioning in the dark room under strict instructions for accuracy, comprises a highly complex series of little understood psychological processes. For under all conditions, perceiving represents a resultant of two complex sets of specifications. One set describes the conditions of stimulation. This is done either in terms of physical measures such as wave len...

During the past two decades, many researchers have attempted to examine the potential relationship between temporomandibular dysfunction and psychological abnormalities. The Crown Crisp Experimental Index and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), among other tests, have been used to assess psychopathological indicators in patients with TMJ syndrome. Unfortunately, the data from th...

BACKGROUND Recently, there has been an increased interest in studying the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for people with psychological and physical problems. However, the mechanisms of action in these interventions that lead to beneficial physical and psychological outcomes have yet to be clearly identified. PURPOSE The aim of this paper is to review, systematically, the evidence ...