Facing others in pain: the effects of empathy.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L Goubert.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In recent years, several studies have pointed out the importance of pain-related fear in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. An important instrument for measuring pain-related fear in the context of low back pain is the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). Recently, a version of this questionnaire has been developed for administration among the general population (TSK-G). To determine the factor structure of the TSK-G, data from a random sample of the Dutch general population were studied separately for people who had had back complaints in the previous year, and people who had been without back complaints. For both groups the TSK-G appeared to consist of one, internally consistent, factor of 12 items. The one-factor TSK-G also appeared valid after comparison with scores on measures of catastrophizing and general health status.
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that catastrophic thinking about pain enhances attentional interference in healthy volunteers. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the attentional effects of pain catastrophizing can be accounted for by the more general predisposition of negative affectivity. METHODS: Sixty-seven pain-free students participated in the first experiment, and 33 patients with chronic low back pain participated in the second experiment. In both experiments, participants performed an auditory reaction time task while being exposed to a series of threatening electrocutaneous stimuli. Retardation in reaction times to auditory probes during pain was taken as an index of the attentional interruption by pain. Participants also completed self-report instruments of negative affectivity and pain catastrophizing. RESULTS: In both experiments, pain catastrophizing enhanced attentional interference by pain. This effect was most pronounced immediately after the onset of the electrocutaneous stimulus. The effect remained after controlling for the effects of negative affectivity. CONCLUSIONS: Catastrophic thinking about pain enhances attentional interruption by pain in normal samples, as well as in clinical samples of patients with chronic back pain. This effect is specific to pain catastrophizing and cannot be explained by the more general disposition of negative affectivity.
Chuk district hospital is centrally located in a rural malarious region in southern Cambodia. It was the site of a hospital-based evaluation (KAP assessment and in vivo i.v. quinine/oral tetracycline drug study) done to identify relevant issues for establishing a rational malaria control strategy. The KAP assessment identified the young, male forest worker as the highest risk group. Of 112 study patients, 73% were male and 82% reported various forest activities. The primary reason found for patient delay (8.9 days) in seeking hospital care was self-treatment at home (N = 102, 91%) with drugs purchased through private sellers (104/105). Using the 7-day WHO field test methodology, resistance rates were calculated (N = 22); S1/R1, 73%; R1, 9%; R2, 0%; R3, 18%. A modified version of the 7-day test was used to calculate its utility in this particular rural setting. It showed a negative predictive value of 93% and a positive predictive value of 71%. The case fatality rate for the study period was 2.7%. Information from this study, which correlates a confirmed malaria diagnosis with prior patient behavior and response to anti-malarial therapy, is intended for realizing the goals set forth by the national malaria control program.
1) Blood-borne osteomyelitis may have a dental portal of entry. This results in a bacteraemia or septicaemia due to organisms other than staphylococci. In such cases, osseous lesions occur at a distance from the initial dental site. 2) As far as antibiotic treatment is concerned:--It must be begun early but not prematurely, i.e. bacteriological studies should be undertaken before antibotic therapy is started, possibly to be later changed in the light of laboratory results.--It should be combined, with a preference for two antibiotics which result in a bactericidal combination, as soon as the responsible organism is identified.--It should be given in high dosage, in view of the problem of diffusion of the antibiotic to the centre of the necrotic bone lesion.--It should be prolonged, based upon clinical, laboratory and radiological findings.