Coping and Management Techniques Used by Chronic Low Back Pain Patients Receiving Treatment From Chiropractors.

OBJECTIVES:The purpose of this study was to describe coping strategies (eg, mechanisms, including self-treatment) that a person uses to reduce pain and its impact on functioning as reported by patients with chronic low back pain who were seen by doctors of chiropractic and how these coping strategies vary by patient characteristics. METHODS:Data were collected from a national sample of US chiropractic patients recruited from chiropractic practices in 6 states from major geographical regions of the United States using a multistage stratified sampling strategy. Reports of coping behaviors used to manage pain during the past 6 months were used to create counts across 6 domains: cognitive, self-care, environmental, medical care, social activities, and work. Exploratory analyses examined counts in domains and frequencies of individual items by levels of patient characteristics. RESULTS:A total of 1677 respondents with chronic low back pain reported using an average of 9 coping behaviors in the prior 6 months. Use of more types of behaviors were reported among those with more severe back pain, who rated their health as fair or poor and who had daily occurrences of pain. Exercise was more frequent among the healthy and those with less pain. Female respondents tended to report using more coping behaviors than men, and Hispanics more than non-Hispanics. CONCLUSION:Persons with chronic back pain were proactive in their coping strategies and frequently used self-care coping strategies like those provided by chiropractors in patient education. In alignment with patients' beliefs that their condition was chronic and lifelong, many patients attempted a wide range of coping strategies to relieve their pain

Managing Capital Flows: Experiences from Central and Eastern Europe. WP234. March 2008

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe went from being largely closed to being largely open to international capital flows. This paper discusses their experience with capital account liberalization and coping with large capital inflows. We start with a discussion of basic economic characteristics and the real convergence achieved so far, and then discuss the pace and sequencing of capital account liberalization and the degree of international financial integration over the past decade. We then analyze trends and patterns of capital inflows in these countries in recent years. These stylized facts are useful for understanding the macroeconomic implications and policy challenges of coping with large capital inflows, which we discuss next. Finally we conclude with policy implications for emerging Asian economies

Sexual Minority Women and Alcohol: Intersections between drinking, relational contexts, stress, and coping

Few studies explore sexual-minority women\u27s experiences and perceptions of alcohol. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six sexual-minority women who reported having sought help for alcohol problems in the past and six who did not. Themes emerged in two broad areas: (1) stressors that contributed to heavy or problem drinking and (2) factors that enhanced coping and reduced both stress and problem use. Alcohol use across groups was framed in terms of social context (e.g., bar patronage), stress management, and addiction. The findings of the study underscore the importance of considering the role of alcohol in managing stress as well as coping factors that may inform social service interventions

Impact factor stories: Anxiety, Stress, & Coping

Anxiety, Stress, & Coping provides a forum for scientific, theoretically important, and clinically significant research reports and conceptual contributions. It deals with experimental and field studies on anxiety dimensions and stress and coping processes, but also with related topics such as the antecedents and consequences of stress and emotion. Welcome are papers contributing to the understanding of the relationship between psychological and physiological processes, specific for stress and anxiety. The journal’s Impact Factor has increased impressively over the past three Impact Factor years. It moved from 0.588 in the 2007 JCR® to 1.127 the subsequent year, with a further jump to 1.545 in the recently released 2009 JCR®. Below, we ask the editors for their thoughts on these increases

Posttraumatic Stress and Well-Being Following Relationship Dissolution: Coping, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms From Past Trauma, and Traumatic Growth

© 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This study investigated posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and psychological comorbidity following dating relationship dissolution. The roles of coping, posttraumatic growth, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity from past trauma were analyzed. Participants (n = 187) were recruited through an online survey. Emotion-focused coping and PTSD severity from past trauma were positively associated with higher levels of PTSS and psychological comorbidity. Posttraumatic growth was negatively associated with psychological comorbidity; problem-focused coping was negatively associated with PTSS. Emotion-focused coping and PTSD severity from past trauma appeared to be risk factors for psychological outcomes, while posttraumatic growth and problem-focused coping were found to be protective factors

Emotion and coping in young victims of peer-agression

Peer-aggression and peer-victimization have been the subject of considerable research interest over the past quarter century. There has been a focus on perpetrators of violence and aggression, based upon the belief that clarification of group and individual processes underpinning aggression will lead to effective intervention and prevention strategies. However, while it is unrealistic to hope that we can completely eradicate aggression, only by clarifying why children and young people respond in certain ways when confronted by peer-aggression can we effectively and efficiently help them to help themselves. In this way, young people can be taught resilience and practical coping skills which will help them to deal with peer-aggression when it occurs, and they can also be helped to more effectively manage emotional reactions when involved in ongoing peer-victimization. Transactional coping theory (Lazarus, 1999) provides an excellent framework for clarifying the important pathways leading to individual differences in emotional reactions and the use of coping strategies by children and young people. In the present chapter, we review the research with victims of peer-aggression which has touched on these questions, and follow this with review of relevant studies from the stress and coping literature which shed light on the relationships between appraisals, emotions and coping strategies. We also report results from a study of our own examining these variables in a sample of children and adolescents experiencing peer-aggression, and draw conclusions for theory and practice based upon these

Measuring Economic Insecurity

We provide a systematic treatment of the notion of economic insecurity, assuming that an individual’s sentiment of insecurity depends on the current wealth level and its variations experienced in the past. We think of wealth as a comprehensive variable encompassing anything that may help in coping with adverse occurrences. The current wealth level could also be interpreted as incorporating the individual’s evaluation of future prospects. Variations in wealth experienced in the recent past are given higher weight than experiences that occurred in the more distant past. Two classes of measures are characterized with sets of plausible and intuitive axioms.Insecurity, Wealth Distribution, Social Index Numbers

From Coping with Natural Disasters in the Past to a Model of Future Optimal Adaptation

The aim of this paper is to gain insights from studying adaptation to natural disasters in the past in order to analyze optimal adaptation in Switzerland in the future. Most adaptation measures already undertaken in Switzerland are so-called reactive measures. They may be eective, but not necessarily ecient. We propose that future climate change asks for proactive measures to combat market damages in an ecient way. We come up with modeling adaptation as a cumulative stock in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model called ADAPT-CH. We nd that with an investment of up to 0.9% of the GDP, a little more than 58% of the exogenously given climate damages in Switzerland can be prevented until 2060.Adaptation; Climate Change; Dynamic CGE Model; Switzerland; Natural Disasters

The Role of Repression in the Incidence of Ironic Errors

The role of repression in the incidence of ironic errors was investigated on a golf task. Coping styles of novice golfers were determined using measures of cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal. Following baseline putts, participants (n = 58) performed a competition putt with the opportunity to win UK£50 (approx. US$100). Before completing the competition putt participants were instructed to “land the ball on the target, but be particularly careful not to over-shoot the target.” The distance the ball traveled past the hole formed the measure of ironic effects. Probing of the coping style × condition interaction, F(2, 41) = 6.53, p < .005, revealed that only the repressors incurred a significant increase in ironic error for the competition putt. This suggests that the act of repressing anxiety has a detrimental performance effect