Use of verbal pain measurement in the detection of hidden psychological morbidity among low back pain patients with objective organic findings

Abstract

Patients with positive physical findings to explain low back pain arc believed lo belong to two organic subgroups. One group has organic disease alone: in the other, organic disease is accompanied by psychological disturbance. Separation of patients with medical findings into groups with varying levels of psychological disturbance is difficult, because emotional disturbance is often hidden. In this study, the pain report of 124 patients with organic findings alone, and 50 patients with organic and psychological findings was examined to determine whether pain measurement could he used to identify accurately patients belonging 10 the two groups. the pain groups differed in the use of 43 pain words from the Low Back Pain Symptom Check List. Using a set of weights derived From discriminant analysis. the 33 pain words predicted 99.2% of the patients with organic disease alone and 86.0% of the patients with organic disease and psychological disturbance. The results were replicated in a new sample of 140 patients. Cross-validation shrinkage in accuracy was 8.3%. The results of the two studies suggest that pain measurement may he a useful clinical indicator of psychological disturbance in patients with organic findings.     

The Ambiguity of Covariation: A Conceptual Note

Three dimensions of propositions, the factual, the epistemic and the modal, and their relationships, are described. The five factor model of personality is based on correlations between ordinary language items. The terms of this language are fuzzy and context-dependent in meaning, and, therefore, unsuitable for epistemic/modal analysis. Hence, one cannot decide to what extent FFM is a priori versus empirical. Only a scientific language, with explicitly stated primitives, axioms, and definitions will permit such a decision.     

四川汶川大地震心理危机干预的思考

面对大地震我们如何应对？突发的灾难除了顷刻间造成大量人员伤亡和财产损失外,还会对人们的心理产生巨大影响。帮助灾区人民渡过心理创伤,减少心理疾病的发生和对心理社会功能的后遗影响。灾后心理危机同样是灾难,灾后心理疏导需专业人员,抗震救灾与灾后的心理干预同等重要。     

1型和2型糖尿病患者的心理疾患差异

对98例1型糖尿病和520例2型糖尿病进行心理分析。糖尿病合并抑郁症的患者比例较高,且1型和2型糖尿病在心理障碍上存有差异。抑郁症和糖尿病的相关性涉及各个方面,有必要进行研究以进一步阐明二者在流行病学、神经内分泌及神经化学等方面的相关性和机制。