Publications by authors named "Cara Nania"

Chronic pain and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) co-occur at high rates in youth and are linked to worse pain outcomes and quality of life. While peer victimization has been posited as a mechanism underlying the PTSS-pain relationship in youth, empirical evidence suggests that it may exacerbate both PTSS and pain. The present study aimed to longitudinally examine PTSS as a mediator in the relationship between peer victimization at baseline and pain-related outcomes at 3 months in youth with chronic pain.

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Chronic pain and mental health issues occur at higher rates in Veterans than the general population. One widely recognized mental health issue faced by Veterans is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma symptoms and pain frequently co-occur and are mutually maintained due to shared mechanisms.

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Chronic headache (persistent or recurrent headache for 3-months or longer) is highly prevalent among youth. While sleep disturbances have been associated with headache, their inter-relationship with brain connectivity remains unknown. This observational study examined whether self-report and actigraphy measures of sleep were associated with alterations to white matter tracts (i.

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Pain experiences of youth with brain-based developmental disabilities are often overlooked and/or misinterpreted, increasing the risk for poor or inadequate pain assessment and management. Ample measures exist to assess acute and chronic pain, yet their utility and frequency of use in youth with brain-based developmental disabilities is unclear and available measures do not have strong measurement properties for this diverse group. This systematic review identified the scope of self-reported and observer-reported pain assessment in studies of youth (aged 3-24 years) with brain-based developmental disabilities (phase 1) and summarized other measures of pain-related functioning for acute and chronic pain (ie, physical, emotional, social, sleep, and quality of life, within the subset of quantitative studies focused primarily on pain, phase 2).

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Article Synopsis
  • Negative childhood experiences with needle procedures can lead to vaccine hesitancy in adulthood; the study evaluated two new interventions, Divided Attention (DA) and Positive Memory Reframing (PMR), aimed at mitigating this issue during vaccinations for children aged 8-12 years.
  • A total of 41 child-parent pairs participated in the study, with interventions being somewhat inconsistent; results indicated that DA and PMR reduced children's fear of future needle procedures, while parent ratings showed reduced fear immediately after vaccination.
  • Although the interventions showed some promising outcomes in reducing fear, there is a need for improved nurse training to ensure these interventions are delivered effectively and to enhance their overall feasibility.
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Objectives: Chronic pain and mental illness in youth and parents are poised to reach new heights amidst the societal and healthcare impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence from natural disasters (i.e.

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Negatively-biased pain memories (ie, recalling more pain as compared to earlier reports) are a robust predictor of future pain experiences. This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of a memory-reframing intervention to reframe children's pain memories. Sixty-five children (54% girls, M=5.

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Objective: Empathy for pain allows one to recognize, understand, and respond to another person's pain in a prosocial manner. Young children develop empathy for pain later than empathy for other negative emotions (e.g.

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Introduction: Diagnostic uncertainty (DU), which is the perception that a label or explanation for a patient's health problem is missing or inaccurate, has been linked to distress, anxiety, and difficulty coping among adults with pain. This study examined the prevalence of DU among youth with chronic pain and their parents and the relation of parent and youth DU with youth pain, pain-related constructs, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: Participants included 174 youth with chronic pain ( = 14.

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Epidemiological and cross-sectional studies have shown that post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) are common and impairing in youth with chronic pain. Yet, the co-occurrence of PTSS and pediatric chronic pain has not been examined longitudinally, which has limited understanding of theoretically proposed mechanisms (eg, sleep disturbance) underlying the PTSS-pain relationship over time. This longitudinal study aimed to fill this gap.

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