Virtual Reality Enhanced Videogame Distraction in Children Undergoing Cold Pressor Pain: The Role of Coping Style and Coping Strategies

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) videogame distraction for children experiencing acute pain and clarify the role of coping style and pain coping strategies as moderators of VR distraction effectiveness. Sixty-two children (6-13 years old) underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which interactive videogame distraction was delivered with or without a VR helmet in counterbalanced order. As predicted, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during both distraction conditions. However, there were no differences in pain tolerance between the distraction conditions. Neither coping style nor pain coping strategies moderated children's responses to distraction. Distraction was effective for both avoiders and approachers

Virtual Reality Enhanced Videogame Distraction in Children Undergoing Cold Pressor Pain: The Role of Coping Style and Coping Strategies

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) videogame distraction for children experiencing acute pain and clarify the role of coping style and pain coping strategies as moderators of VR distraction effectiveness. Sixty-two children (6-13 years old) underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which interactive videogame distraction was delivered with or without a VR helmet in counterbalanced order. As predicted, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during both distraction conditions. However, there were no differences in pain tolerance between the distraction conditions. Neither coping style nor pain coping strategies moderated children's responses to distraction. Distraction was effective for both avoiders and approachers

Illness Information Disclosure: Maternal Predictors and Impact on Affective Distress in Children with Cancer

Children's knowledge of their illness and the possibility of dying from their disease were evaluated in 90 families of pediatric cancer patients 2 months after diagnosis. Maternal protective parenting, affective distress, coping style, and knowledge about the child's illness were evaluated as predictors of illness and prognosis information disclosure. Information disclosure was expected to predict child affective distress. As expected, children who knew they had cancer or simply knew that they were sick had fewer maternal-reported internalizing behaviors than children with minimal knowledge of their illness. No significant difference was found between children with knowledge of cancer and knowledge of being sick. Maternal depression and approach coping style predicted child knowledge of illness and possibility of death, respectively, in elementary-school aged children (6-10-years-old). Mothers' confusion about their child's illness, prognosis,and treatment, predicted less child knowledge of illness, for elementary and middle/high school aged children (6-18-years-old) and knowledge of the possibility of death for elementary school aged children. Results suggest that providing children with meaningful information regarding their illness rather than withholding illness information may help lessen their affective distress. Specific information about the illness as cancer may not provide additional benefit for children with respect to affective distress beyond that provided by the knowledge that they are sick. Mothers may benefit from greater education about their child's illness and more support to manage their depression to facilitate open parent-child communication about the illness and its prognosis and help lessen child affective distress

Physical Activity Monitoring in Adolescents With Juvenile Fibromyalgia: Findings From a Clinical Trial of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Juvenile fibromyalgia (JFM) is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition that is associated with reduced physical function. Recent research has demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in improving daily functioning among adolescents with JFM. However, it is not known whether these improvements were accompanied by increased physical activity levels. Our objective was to analyze secondary data from a randomized clinical trial of CBT to examine whether CBT was associated with improvement in objectively measured physical activity and whether actigraphy indices corresponded with self-reported functioning among adolescents with JFM. Participants were 114 adolescents (ages 11-18 years) recruited from pediatric rheumatology clinics that met criteria for JFM and were enrolled in a clinical trial. Subjects were randomly (1:1) assigned to receive either CBT or fibromyalgia education (FE). Participants wore a hip-mounted accelerometer for 1 week as part of their baseline and posttreatment assessments. The final sample included 68 subjects (94% female, mean age 15.2 years) for whom complete actigraphy data were obtained. Actigraphy measures were not found to correspond with self-reported improvements in functioning. While self-reported functioning improved in the CBT condition compared to FE, no significant changes were seen in either group for activity counts, sedentary, moderate, or vigorous activity. The CBT group had significantly lower peak and light activity at posttreatment. Actigraphy monitoring provides a unique source of information about patient outcomes. CBT intervention was not associated with increased physical activity in adolescents with JFM, indicating that combining CBT with interventions to increase physical activity may enhance treatment effects. Copyright © 2013 by the American College of Rheumatology

Physical Activity Monitoring in Adolescents With Juvenile Fibromyalgia: Findings From a Clinical Trial of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Juvenile fibromyalgia (JFM) is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition that is associated with reduced physical function. Recent research has demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in improving daily functioning among adolescents with JFM. However, it is not known whether these improvements were accompanied by increased physical activity levels. Our objective was to analyze secondary data from a randomized clinical trial of CBT to examine whether CBT was associated with improvement in objectively measured physical activity and whether actigraphy indices corresponded with self-reported functioning among adolescents with JFM. Participants were 114 adolescents (ages 11-18 years) recruited from pediatric rheumatology clinics that met criteria for JFM and were enrolled in a clinical trial. Subjects were randomly (1:1) assigned to receive either CBT or fibromyalgia education (FE). Participants wore a hip-mounted accelerometer for 1 week as part of their baseline and posttreatment assessments. The final sample included 68 subjects (94% female, mean age 15.2 years) for whom complete actigraphy data were obtained. Actigraphy measures were not found to correspond with self-reported improvements in functioning. While self-reported functioning improved in the CBT condition compared to FE, no significant changes were seen in either group for activity counts, sedentary, moderate, or vigorous activity. The CBT group had significantly lower peak and light activity at posttreatment. Actigraphy monitoring provides a unique source of information about patient outcomes. CBT intervention was not associated with increased physical activity in adolescents with JFM, indicating that combining CBT with interventions to increase physical activity may enhance treatment effects. Copyright © 2013 by the American College of Rheumatology

Additional file 1: of A pilot study of biomechanical assessment before and after an integrative training program for adolescents with juvenile fibromyalgia

Balance and Strength database. (XLSX 16 kb

Videogame Distraction using Virtual Reality Technology for Children Experiencing Cold Pressor Pain: The Role of Cognitive Processing

Objective This study examined whether increasing the demand for central cognitive processing involved in a distraction task, by involving the child in ongoing, effortful interaction with the distraction stimulus, would increase children's tolerance for cold pressor pain. Methods Seventy-nine children ages 6–15 years underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which they received interactive distraction (i.e., used voice commands to play a videogame) or passive distraction (in which they merely watched the output from the same videogame segment) in counterbalanced order. Both distraction conditions were presented via a virtual reality-type helmet. Results As expected, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during distraction relative to baseline. Children showed the greatest improvement during the interactive distraction task. Conclusion The effects of distraction on children's cold pressor pain tolerance are significantly enhanced when the distraction task also includes greater demands for central cognitive processing