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Hot Research
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Trauma-specific guided imagery: an adjunct intervention to group psychotherapy |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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We have strong indications that our Healing Trauma imagery gives an assist to existing cognitive behavioral and multi-modal programs for PTSD in recovering vets, but Leslie Root, PhD, Ellen Koch, PhD & colleagues at the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi, Mississippi, wanted to measure the effects of the trauma-specific imagery as the only add-on intervention after each of 5 group treatment sessions for PTSD. This breaks new ground. |
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Predictors of secondary trauma in sexual assault trauma counselors. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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Predictors of secondary trauma in sexual assault trauma counselors. |
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Skills training in affective and interpersonal regulation followed by exposure. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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Skills training in affective and interpersonal regulation followed by exposure: a phase-based treatment for PTSD related to childhood abuse. |
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Biofeedback and relaxation techniques improves running economy in sub-elite long distance runners. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
A study out of The University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, looked at whether a combination of biofeedback and relaxation could decrease oxygen consumption in long distance runners and thus improve their running economy and performance.
Seven long distance runners were tested for running economy, peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), peak running velocity, and stretch-shortening cycle efficiency. These runners then participated in a 6-wk training program in which they learned and practiced relaxation techniques and ran on the treadmill at a velocity eliciting 70% of peak running velocity for 10 min while biofeedback of heart rate (HR), ventilation (VE), and VO2 was presented to them.
Data indicated that participants were able to lower their VO2, HR, and VE at lactate threshold by 7.3%, 2.5%, and 9.2%, respectively, using relaxation techniques (P<0.05). Post-tests of lactate threshold, VO2peak, peak running velocity, and stretch-shortening cycle efficiency showed that these changes did not occur as a result of a training effect. The researchers concluded that the improvements in running economy occurred as a result of the relaxation and biofeedback intervention.
Citation: Caird SJ, McKenzie AD, Sleivert GG. Biofeedback and relaxation techniques improves running economy in sub-elite long distance runners. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 1999 May;31(5): pp. 717-22. |
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Preparing for the end of life: preferences of patients, families, physicians, and other care provide |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
According to a survey of 1,462 seriously ill patients by Karen Steinhauser and her research team at Duke University, freedom from pain is the most important priority at the end of life, followed by being at peace with God and being with loved ones.
Other areas that ranked high in importance were good patient-physician communication, being prepared for death, and achieving closure.
Items that were considered important by patients but less so by physicians included being mentally alert, not being a burden to others, and having time to plan funeral arrangements. Interestingly, the researchers also found that dying at home was not a priority.
People don’t fear death, said Steinhauser at a press conference announcing the survey findings. They fear bad dying.
Citation: Steinhauser KE, Christakis NA, Clipp EC, McNeilly M, Grambow S, Parker J, Tulsky JA. Preparing for the end of life: preferences of patients, families, physicians, and other care providers. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 2001 Sep;22(3):727-37. |
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Does prayer influence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer? |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
When Dr. Rogerio Lobo, Chair of Columbia Presbyterian''s Department of OBGYN, and Dr. Kwang Y. Cha, a researcher at Cha Hospital in Seoul, studied the effect of intercessory prayer on the pregnancy rates of 219 women, aged 26-46 years old, being treated with in vitro fertilization, they found that the prayed-for group had
double the pregnancy rate (50% vs. 26%, P = .0013) and double the implantation rate (16.3% vs. 8%, P = .0005).
This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, in which patients and providers were
not informed about the intervention. Statisticians and investigators were masked until all the data had been collected and all the clinical outcomes were known. The setting was an IVF-ET program at Cha Hospital, Seoul, Korea. The intercessory prayer was carried out by prayer groups in the United States, Canada and Australia. The investigators were at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the United States.
The study concludes that there was a statistically significant difference for the effect of intercessory prayer on the outcome of In Vitro Fertilization.
A nice write up of the study can be found here.
Citation: Cha KY, Wirth DP, Lobo RA. Does prayer influence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer? Journal of Reproductive Medicine. 2001 Sep; 46 (9): 781-7. |
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A comparison of treatments for women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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A randomized comparison of psychological (cognitive behavior therapy), medical (fluoxetine) and combined treatment for women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. British researchers at Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas Hospital Medical Schools randomly assigned 108 women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) to one of 3 treatment conditions: either 10 sessions of cognitive behavior therapy, or a daily dose of 20 mg of fluoxetine (Prozac), or a combination of both CBT and the anti-depressant, over the course of 6 months.
At the one year follow-up, measures were taken using the Calendar of Premenstrual Experiences (COPE) and significant improvement was found in all three treatment-groups after 6 months'' treatment, assessed by the COPE.
Fluoxetine was associated with a more rapid improvement, but CBT was associated with better maintenance of treatment effects. In conclusion, CBT and fluoxetine are equally effective treatments for PMDD, but in different ways. In spite of these differential benefits, however, this study did not find additional benefit by combining the treatments.
Citation: Hunter MS, Ussher JM, Browne SJ, Cariss M, Jelley R, Katz M. A randomized comparison of psychological (cognitive behavior therapy), medical (fluoxetine) and combined treatment for women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 2002, Sept; 23 (3): pp. 193-199. |
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Mind-body interventions for surgery: evidence and exigency. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
Henry Dreher''s superb summary of research with mind-body interventions for surgery appears in the Fetzer Institute''s Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, Vol 14, no.3, Summer 1998, pp. 207-222. His discussion of Henry Bennett''s placebo controlled, double blinded research with 4 audio interventions on 335 surgery patients establishes that the Health Journeys tape for Surgery was the only tape that offered statistically significant results. The study yielded profound results on the reduction blood loss, length of hospital stay and anxiety levels, both state (the fluctuating kind) and trait anxiety (which presumably doesn''t change, because it is seen as a relatively stable personality feature). In fact, the Naparstek guided imagery tape was so potent, that Dreher devotes a whole section of this article to trying to figure out why it outperformed all the others.
Citation: Dreher H. Mind-body interventions for surgery: evidence and exigency. Advances In Mind Body Medicine 1998;14:207-222. |
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Helping children relax during magnetic resonance imaging. |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
In the Sept/Oct, 1997 issue of The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing [Vol. 22(5), pp 237-241], Gail Smart, a clinical pediatric nurse specialist at Children''s Hospital of Denver,
reports on her pilot study on the effects of guided imagery on kids
during MRI procedures. She randomly assigned 20 kids, ages 4-8, to
either a guided imagery group or a control group.
She wanted to see if an imagery tape could reduce the need
for sedation (which can lead to respiratory distress, hyperactivity and
other complications). She used a tape called "Magic Island" by
Betty Mehling as the intervention, which combines breathing,
progressive relaxation and a guided imagery fantasy about a ride in a
hot air balloon to a series of magical islands.
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Preoperative rehearsal of imagery influences responses to abdominal surgery |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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Preoperative rehearsal of active coping imagery influences subjective and hormonal responses to abdominal surgery. A 1995 study reported in Psychosomatic Medicine shows that of 51 patients undergoing abdominal surgery, those who were taught guided imagery before surgery had less postoperative pain than those who did not. They were also less distressed by the surgery, felt as if they had coped with it better and requested less pain medication than patients who did learn imagery skills.
Citation: Manyande A, Berg S, Gettins D, Stanford SC, Mazhero S, Marks DF, Salmon P. Preoperative rehearsal of active coping imagery influences subjective and hormonal responses to abdominal surgery. Psychosomatic Medicine. 1995: 57: 177-182. |
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Dental fear: effects of cognitive therapy, applied relaxation, and nitrous oxide sedation |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 |
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One-year follow-up of patients treated for dental fear: effects of cognitive therapy, applied relaxation, and nitrous oxide sedation. When sixty-two patients were randomly assigned to nitrous oxide sedation (NO), cognitive therapy (CT), or applied relaxation (AR) therapy, to help them reduce their fear of dental procedures, highly significant reductions in fear and general distress were found in all three groups. Patients in the applied relaxation group showed the greatest benefit and the most dramatic reduction on dental fear measures.
One year later a majority (95%) of the participants had undergone dental treatment, and on the whole, showed continued favorable effects. Every subject judged the dental fear treatment to have been beneficial, and 80% reported the treatment successful. All three treatment groups scored in the normative range for general distress both at the end of treatment and at one year follow-up.
Citation: T. Willumsen, O. Vassend and A. Hoffart. One-year follow-up of patients treated for dental fear: effects of cognitive therapy, applied relaxation, and nitrous oxide sedation. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. Vol 59; No: 6 Page: 335-340. |
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