Effects of active musical engagement during physical exercise on anxiety, pain and motivation in patients with chronic pain.

The experience of anxiety is central to the development of chronic pain. Music listening has been previously shown to exert analgesic effects. Here we tested if an active engagement in music making is more beneficial than music listening in terms of anxiety and pain levels during physical activity that is often avoided in patients with chronic pain.

[Bio-Psycho-Social Therapy for Stress-Induced Chronic Pain].

Bio-Psycho-Social Therapy for Stress-Induced Chronic Pain Against the background of latest neurobiological and epigenetic findings the bio-psycho-social model of disease is outlined often misinterpreted in the context of chronic pain. It represents the basic principle for a personalized treatment of stress-induced chronic pain. Consequences for diagnostic procedures are delineated to detect this pathogenetic subgroup of chronic pain patients (e.

[Health-related long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences - an update].

In the last decade strong empirical evidence from several long-term studies supports the conclusion that physical and sexual abuse as well as emotional deprivation in childhood make people significantly more vulnerable to mental and functional disorders across their lifetime. Additionally, an increased vulnerability to several somatic disorders (cardiovascular disorders, type-2-diabetes, hepatitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), immunological and pain disorders, pharynx and lung cancer) was demonstrated - most of them with a reduced life expectancy. A review of the current research will be presented that outlines the underlying developmental neurobiological and psychological mechanisms mediating these long-term effects.

[Stress-induced hyperalgesia (SIH) as a consequence of emotional deprivation and psychosocial traumatization in childhood : Implications for the treatment of chronic pain].

It is now widely recognized that in many chronic pain syndromes the intensity and severity of individually perceived pain does not correlate consistently with the degree of peripheral nervous system tissue damage or with the intensity of primary afferent or spinal nociceptive neurone activity. In particular, stress and anxiety exert modulatory influences on pain depending on the nature, duration and intensity of the stressor and developmental influences on the maturation of the stress as well as the pain system. In some chronic pain syndromes, e.

Implications of proposed fibromyalgia criteria across other functional pain syndromes.

Objectives: In 2010, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) proposed new criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) in the context of objections to components of the criteria of 1990. The new criteria consider the Widespread Pain Index (WPI) and the Symptom Severity Score (SSS). This study evaluated the implications of the new diagnostic criteria for FM across other functional pain syndromes.

[Expert testimony in post-traumatic stress disorder with pain as the main symptom].

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most relevant disorders of patients with chronic pain, but is often underdiagnosed. This also applies to expert testimony. Further complicating the assessment are the different definitions of PTSD in ICD-10 and DSM-IV; the new DSM-5 has added a further definition.

[Female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome in somatic and psychosomatic rehabilitation center - an exploratory study on access routes and differences in patient characteristics].

Study Objective: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by e. g. chronic, multilocular pain, and mental health problems.

[Emotional childhood parentification and mental disorders in adulthood].

Background: Emotional parentification is considered harmful to a child's development.

Method: A total of about 975 patients were examined at a Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and in the practices of general practitioners with regard to childhood adversities.

Results: Emotional parentification is a risk factor for 2 symptom groups: the patients with depression and the patients with somatoform pain.

Manualized psychodynamic-interactional group therapy for the treatment of somatoform pain disorders.

Medically unexplained and clinically significant symptoms of pain are highly prevalent in the general population. More than one third of all patients in general practices and various departments of hospitals suffer from somatoform disorders with pain being the main complaint of 70% of these patients. This treatment manual is the first disorder-specific, psychodynamically oriented treatment for these patients.

[Determinants of quality of life in patients with somatoform disorders with pain as main symptom - the case for differentiating subgroups].

Objectives: What impact do the degree of somatization and the presence of a comorbid psychological disorder have on health-related quality of life in patients with pain-dominated somatoform disorders?

Methods: 282 consecutive patients (57.6 %) from a total population of N=490 patients fulfilling the criteria of somatoform pain disorders were included in the study following a thorough interdisciplinary diagnostic process at a German university hospital. Structured interviews (SKIDI and SKID-II) to assess comorbid psychological disorders as well as a structured biographical interview to assess chronification factors were conducted.

[Somatoform disorders with pain as the predominant symptom: results to distinguish a common group of diseases].

According to a population-based prevalence study, medically unexplained pain syndromes are highly prevalent in the German general population. With a 1-year prevalence of 8% for somatoform pain disorders and a lifetime prevalence of 12.7%, they rank among the most prevalent conditions in the community.

[Therapy of disorders with central pain sensitization.].

Previous somatic pain experience (priming), psychobiographic imprinting (pain proneness), and stress (action proneness) are key to an enhanced centralised pain response. This centralised pain response clinically manifests itself in pain sensitization and chronification. The therapeutic approach to chronic centralised pain disorders is multimodal.

[Neither Descartes nor Freud? current pain models in psychosomatic medicine].

Models explaining chronic pain based on the mere presence or absence of peripheral somatic findings or which view pain of psychological origin when there is no somatic explanation, have their shortcomings. Current scientific knowledge calls for distinct pain concepts, which integrate neurobiological and neuropsychological aspects of pain processing.

[Chronic low back pain as a somatoform pain disorder].

Chronic low back pain as a leading symptom of a somatoform pain disorder is a remnant diagnostic category for many physicians, general practitioners and orthopaedic surgeons. Patients with somatoform pain disorder (ICD-10: F45.4) are often not diagnosed until after several years and multiple diagnostic procedures, in some cases after iatrogenic impairment.

Cerebral activation in patients with somatoform pain disorder exposed to pain and stress: an fMRI study.

Patients with somatoform pain disorders are supposed to suffer from an early acquired defect in stress regulation. In order to look for common alterations of the pain- and stress-responsive cortical areas, we prospectively recorded cerebral activations induced by pin-prick pain, by cognitive stress and emotional stress using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of 17 patients and an age-matched control group. In addition, the hippocampal volumes of both groups were measured.

Reliability of retrospective assessments of childhood experiences in Germany.

The retrospective assessment of adverse childhood experiences is a widely used technique. Few studies report heterogeneous results about the reliability and objectivity. A sample of 100 patients was independently interviewed by means of the Mainz Structured Biographical Interview by two different interviewers with mean time lag of 2.

Positron emission tomography reveals correlations between brain metabolism and mood changes in hyperthyroidism.

Context: Hyperthyroidism is frequently associated with emotional distress. The underlying cerebral processes of the endocrine-induced mood changes are unclear.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the neuronal correlates of thyrotoxicosis-associated psychic symptoms using positron emission tomography (PET).

[The symptom checklist-27 in Germany].

The symptom-checklist SCL-27 is a short, multidimensional screening instrument for mental health problems. It contains six subscales, i. e.

The "Mainzer EMF-Wachhund": results from a watchdog project on self-reported health complaints attributed to exposure to electromagnetic fields.

The "Mainzer EMF-Wachhund," a watchdog project, offered a system of self-notification of health complaints attributed to exposures to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to a population of a part of Germany with about 4 million inhabitants. By using a self-administered questionnaire, which was provided online and for download from the Internet, 192 persons reported such health complaints in the period from October 2003 to March 2005. Of these, 56% classified themselves as electromagnetic hypersensitive (EH).

Psychological defense styles, childhood adversities and psychopathology in adulthood.

Objective: The present study explores the link between reported sexual and/or physical abuse and psychological defense styles, as well as the association of both with psychological distress in adulthood. In two patient samples that differ in psychological distress and somatization, we examine whether the adversities reported and immature defense styles are associated with psychopathological symptoms.

Method: We examined 266 consecutive inpatients in the psychosomatic department and 109 consecutive inpatients who had been treated for low-back pain in the orthopedic department of a German university hospital.