Previous research has demonstrated the impact of negative emotional states on pain modulation. The direction of this modulation has been shown to correspond to the arousal level and the valence of the emotional state, whether naturally occurring or induced in the laboratory. Other research has consistently linked written emotion disclosure of trauma to better long-term health outcomes among several populations. As most of these studies have focused on long-term health outcome effects of disclosure, little research has been done on the immediate effects of the paradigm on affective or physiological states. This study investigated the short-term effects of written disclosure of trauma on laboratory-induced pain, affective state, and other physiological measures of stress and arousal. Other goals of the study included investigating preexisting differences in pain sensitivity between participants corresponding to lifetime experience of trauma, and determining the degree to which baseline pain testing alters pain sensitivity after emotion induction by creating a conditioned, contextual fear. This is the first study to apply the written emotional disclosure paradigm to laboratory-induced pain.

The essay explored the connection between the deviation of the children’s behavioral patterns and the theory of psychoanalysis. Texts by Klein and Freud and also adaptations of their theories by Mangs, Martell and Salzberg-Wittenberg were used to explore whether the characters followed the developmental stages according to psychoanalysis. Through a comparison between the records of the characters’ behavior with diagnostic material regarding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder composed by the American Psychiatric Association, the conclusion was drawn that the result of the analysis points towards the fact that the deviation in the behavioral patterns of the children was a result of the traumatic events that took place around them.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom en fallstudie undersöka på vilket sätt en specifik skola belägen i Uppsala arbetar med traumatiserade flykting - elever. För att uppfylla syftet har jag använt mig av kvalitativa samtalsintervjuer med kurator, bildlärare, musikterapeut samt bildterapeut. Resultatet pekar på att skolans sätt att arbeta stämmer överens med den forskningsöversikt som gjorts för uppsatsen. Exempelvis finns på skolan tillgång till estetiska uttrycksmedel, så som bild och musik. Lektioner av estetisk karaktär är mycket gynnsam i arbetet med traumatiserade flyktingelever. Det är av stor relevans att en pedagogisk verksamhet inte blandas ihop med en terapeutiskt och i skolan fokuserar man på att arbeta utifrån det friska hos eleverna. Skolan saknar även resurser för att arbeta med ren traumabehandling. Utmärkande är också att Skolverket inte utarbetat nationella riktlinjer för den här verksamheten vilket givit upphov till en del dilemman.

Previous research has demonstrated the impact of negative emotional states on pain modulation. The direction of this modulation has been shown to correspond to the arousal level and the valence of the emotional state, whether naturally occurring or induced in the laboratory. Other research has consistently linked written emotion disclosure of trauma to better long-term health outcomes among several populations. As most of these studies have focused on long-term health outcome effects of disclosure, little research has been done on the immediate effects of the paradigm on affective or physiological states. This study investigated the short-term effects of written disclosure of trauma on laboratory-induced pain, affective state, and other physiological measures of stress and arousal. Other goals of the study included investigating preexisting differences in pain sensitivity between participants corresponding to lifetime experience of trauma, and determining the degree to which baseline pain testing alters pain sensitivity after emotion induction by creating a conditioned, contextual fear. This is the first study to apply the written emotional disclosure paradigm to laboratory-induced pain.

This study was undertaken to determine whether written emotional disclosure of trauma impacted capsaicin induced pain immediately after writing and at a one-month follow-up, and the extent to which a lifetime history of trauma alters pain under neutral conditions. Three experiments were conducted to answer these questions. In Experiment 1 participants were randomly assigned to write about either a neutral or a trauma topic, and they concurrently completed the capsaicin test. In Experiment 2, the capsaicin test was administered to trauma history and no trauma history participants and pain ratings and secondary hyperalgesia were recorded under neutral conditions. In Experiment 3, participants wrote for three days and completed the radiant heat test before writing on day 1 and after writing on day 3. They also completed the capsaicin test on either day 4 or at a one-month follow-up (day 30). Taken together, these studies had several important results. First, radiant heat withdrawal latencies, ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness, and area of secondary hyperalgesia were all significantly increased when participants had a history of traumatic experiences. This is evidence that trauma history is sufficient to alter pain regulatory mechanisms, and this may be attributable to the chronic negative affective state induced by trauma history and sensitization of shared circuits involved in both pain and emotion. Furthermore, our findings suggest that written emotional disclosure may lead to long-term changes in pain modulatory pathways that regulate central sensitization, without altering systems that regulate spontaneous pain.

Zugl.: Pretoria, Univ., Masterarbeit / Hergestellt on demand

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 78 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-48).

There is a lack of studies investigating PTSD in countries with a low human development index and also among refugee populations (Onyut et al., 2004; Stevens et al., 2013). The purpose of the present study was to investigate coping strategies used by Congolese refugees, a heavily traumatised population. Using a mixed-methods design, two studies were conducted on samples of Congolese refugees. Interviews (N=10) were conducted to study coping strategies. Thematic analysis generated five themes: 1) religion, 2) social coping, 3) problem-solving, 4) resignation, and 5) avoidance. Furthermore, differences in coping strategies between individuals with low (n=23) and high (n=24) PTSD symptom severity1 were examined statistically. The results showed that the low PTSD symptom severity group used significantly more adaptive coping strategies compared to the other group (p=.004). No difference was found in maladaptive coping strategies (p=ns). The results of both the qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that religious meaning-making and social coping are important in this context.

The proposed study will explore the relationship between trauma and delinquent behaviors and how this relationship differs between male and female adolescents. I aim to investigate why childhood exposure to interpersonal trauma is a stronger predictor of delinquency in females than males. Within female adolescents, I propose that the relationship between trauma and delinquency is mediated by disruption in attachment schema which is caused by exposure to trauma. Therefore, I will use multiple regression to analyze a moderated mediation model. This model is informed by Social Control Theory and a Feminist Pathways Perspective of crime and delinquency. Study participants will include male and female adolescents attending public high school in Austin, Texas. / text

Dissociative symptoms and abnormalities in pain perception have been associated with a range of disorders. We tested whether experimentally induced increases in state dissociation would cause an analgesic response, and whether this effect would be moderated by participants' history of trauma and dissociative experiences. Participants (n=120) were classified based on their histories of traumatic and dissociative experiences: No trauma or dissociation (NN), trauma without dissociation (TN), or trauma with dissociation (TD). All participants were randomized to a dissociation induction condition via audiophotic stimulation or a credible control condition and were compared on prepost changes in subjective pain and pain tolerance in response to a standard cold-pressor test. Unexpectedly, dissociation induction did not lead to greater pain tolerance or reduced self-reported pain. However, increases in state dissociation significantly predicted increased immersion time and decreased subjective pain. / text