The coronavirus disease pandemic of 2019 (COVID-19) is a worldwide threat to public health that has significantly affected the United States. The pandemic poses a variety of health risks including stressful disruptions in social and economic activity. Understanding the pandemic's effects on already vulnerable populations, such as individuals with chronic pain, may inform healthcare preparation for future catastrophic events. Given the association between excessive discounting of delayed rewards and chronic pain, this study examined relationships between delay discounting, pain severity, and COVID-19 perceived stress in individuals with chronic pain. Individuals reporting chronic pain (N = 180; 41% female; 86% white; 59% with a college degree) were recruited via the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform in this cross-sectional study. Measures of pain severity, delay discounting, probability discounting, and COVID-19 perceived stress were collected. Delay discounting was a significant predictor of overall pain severity (p < .02) and COVID-19 perceived stress (p < .001). Also, the magnitude of COVID-19 perceived stress fully mediated the relationship between delay discounting and overall pain severity (p = .004). Probability discounting was not a significant predictor of pain severity or COVID-19 perceived stress (p > .05). These findings highlight the importance of excessive discounting of delayed rewards as a potential determinant of pain severity as well as predictor of perceived stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the discounting of delayed rewards is of particular therapeutic importance for individuals with chronic pain in the context of stressful events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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JAMA Netw Open
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco.
Importance: Mindfulness meditation may improve well-being among employees; however, effects of digital meditation programs are poorly understood.
Objective: To evaluate the effects of digital meditation vs a waiting list condition on general and work-specific stress and whether greater engagement in the intervention moderates these effects.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial included a volunteer sample of adults (aged ≥18 years) employed at a large academic medical center who reported mild to moderate stress, had regular access to a web-connected device, and were fluent in English.
Prev Med Rep
January 2025
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Objective: The noncompliance rate with routine or surveillance colonoscopies is high, and the underlying reasons remain unverified among Asian patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study aimed to examine the perceptions of Asian patients with IBD regarding bowel preparation and colonoscopy and their attitudes toward the recommended intervals for colonoscopies.
Methods: Using data from one medical center between July 2020 and May 2022, we analyzed the perceptions of bowel preparation and colonoscopy and attitudes toward examination intervals among 94 patients with IBD (Crohn's disease, 41; ulcerative colitis, 53).
Objectives: This study aimed to identify the obstacles preventing care of diabetes distress from being integrated into diabetes management, as perceived by both patients and healthcare professionals. By conducting interviews with people with type 2 diabetes (PWD) and physicians, this study aimed to gain insight into the current state of care for diabetes distress in diabetes management and propose targeted interventions to improve patients' overall well-being and treatment outcomes.
Design: This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with patients and physicians.
BMJ Open
December 2024
National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Introduction: Individuals with hearing loss and hearing aid users report higher levels of listening effort and fatigue in daily life compared with those with normal hearing. However, there is a lack of objective measures to evaluate these experiences in real-world settings. Recent studies have found that higher sound pressure levels (SPL) and lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) are linked to increased heart rate and decreased heart rate variability, reflecting the greater effort required to process auditory information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Varrentrappstr. 40-42, 60486, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Background: Greater therapeutic alliance has been associated with an improved treatment outcome in various clinical populations. However, there is a lack of evidence for this association in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in young patients. We therefore investigated the development of the therapeutic alliance during Developmentally adapted cognitive processing therapy (D-CPT) in adolescents and young adults with PTSD following abuse to answer the question whether there was a connection between the therapeutic alliance and symptom reduction.
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