Psychological dimensions of distress in chronic pain patients: a factor analytic study of symptom checklist-90 responses.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M S Shutty.
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Traditional approaches to psychological assessment of chronic pain patients have centered either on underlying psychopathology or environmental reinforcers for pain behavior. The current research focuses on patient beliefs and attitudes about their pain and its treatment, an additional dimension which appears to be important in treatment outcome but has seldom been systematically examined. Patients' ratings of agreement/disagreement with information presented in a brief educational videotape about chronic pain were examined via factor analysis. The four factors which emerged from the rating were: admission of emotionality, perceived relevance of the videotaped information, acknowledgment of personal responsibility in the treatment, and discrimination of noninvasive treatments. These four factors appear to have convergent validity with those suggested by other researchers. The validity and utility of this approach to patient assessment in rehabilitation settings are discussed.
This report describes a case of recurrent pseudocyesis in a man with psychosis, intermittent hyponatremia, and polydipsia. The pseudocyesis was documented on three separate occasions coinciding with bouts of acute hyponatremia and rapid weight gain stemming from ingestion of large amounts of water. In contrast, no pseudocyesis was elicited during intervening normonatremic states. Abdominal distention, neuropsychological deterioration, and worsening of psychosis during acute hyponatremia are considered as contributing factors to the pseudocyesis.