Medically unexplained pain complaints are associated with underlying unrecognized mood disorders in primary care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with chronic pain frequently display comorbid depression, but the impact of this concurrence is often underestimated and mistreated. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of unrecognized major depression and other mood disorders and comorbid unexplained chronic pain in primary care settings and to explore the associated factors.</p> <p>Also, to compare the use of health services by patients with unexplained chronic pain, both with and without mood disorder comorbidity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of primary care centers. 3189 patients consulting for "unexplained chronic pain" were assessed by the Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) and the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report: a) a high prevalence of unrecognized mood disorders in patients suffering from unexplained chronic pain complaints (80.4%: CI 95%: 79.0%; 81.8%); b) a greater susceptibility of women to mood disorders (OR adjusted = 1.48; CI 95%:1.22; 1.81); c) a direct relationship between the prevalence of mood disorders and the duration of pain (OR adjusted = 1.01; CI 95%: 1.01; 1.02) d) a higher comorbidity with depression if the pain etiology was unknown (OR adjusted = 1.74; CI 95%: 1.45; 2.10) and, e) an increased use of health care services in patients with such a comorbidity (p < 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prevalence of undiagnosed mood disorders in patients with unexplained chronic pain in primary care is very high, leading to dissatisfaction with treatment processes and poorer outcomes. Consequently, it seems necessary to explore this condition more regularly in general practice in order to reach accurate diagnoses and to select the appropriate treatment.</p

Consequences of bullying on adolescents’ mental health in Germany : comparing face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying

The present study explored whether face-to-face bullying (physical as well as relational), cyberbullying, and teachers’ bullying have a negative impact on adolescent’s mental health and whether there are gender differences. Analyses are based on a representative cross-sectional standardised survey of 10,638 students of the nineth grade of one federal state of Germany. Findings show that psychological cyberbullying is most strongly associated with poor mental health for both boys and girls. Relational bullying by classmates as well as by teachers also show a significant correlation with poor mental health. For girls, there appears to be an additional relationship between sexual cyberbullying and mental health. Physical forms of bullying were not found to be associated with mental health. Implications for research are discussed

Promoting Wellbeing in Pregnancy: A Multi-component Positive Psychology and Mindfulness-Based Mobile App

Pregnancy involves important changes for women of all ages: it is a time of physical and psychological change. Women may experience anxiety and negative emotions, which can negatively influence their wellbeing and make difficult their adaptation to the new role of mothers. Furthermore, poor mental well-being and difficulties in emotion regulation can negatively affect obstetric outcomes, development of the child and neonatal adaptation. The aim of this work is to present a new self-applied multi-component positive psychology- and mindfulness-based intervention (MPPMI) supported by a mobile App addressed to pregnant women. The core of this MPPMI is to combine traditional positive psychology activities with mindfulness-based exercises. The purpose of this MPPMI App (available in both Android and IOS versions) is to increase positive feelings, behaviors and cognitions and to learn strategies to better cope with anxiety to get adaptively and positively through pregnancy. The intervention is composed by five modules, for a total length of five weeks, and each module includes three activities. The future steps will be to carry out a pilot study to examine the program implementation and preliminary evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention on women\u2019s mental well-being, both at the end of the intervention and after childbirth