Is religiousness a correlate of absorption? Implications for psychophysiology, coping, and morbidity.

CONTEXT: Evidence synthesized from social epidemiology, psychophysiology, and behavioral medicine suggests that religiousness may represent a significant correlate of absorption, a construct for which few if any psychosocial determinants have been identified. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between absorption and intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness. PARTICIPANTS: 83 respondents of a self-administered survey of adult survivors of cancer or other life-threatening diseases, recruited from participants in a pilot study of psychosocial factors related to recovery from illness. MAIN MEASURES: Tellegen Absorption Scale and Religious Orientation Scale. RESULTS: Absorption, as assessed by the Tellegen Absorption Scale, was positively and significantly associated with intrinsic religiousness, as measured by the Religious Orientation Scale. Predominantly intrinsic subjects had absorption scores at least 20% higher than did predominantly extrinsic, proreligious, or nonreligious subjects. DISCUSSION: Prior research has found that absorption and hypnotizability have psychophysiological correlates, and that religiousness shows protective effects against morbidity and mortality. In light of this work, the present findings suggest that certain religious cognitions, emotions, or experiences may generate an internally focused state that enhances health and attenuates disease through self-soothing psychophysiological mechanisms.

Observation of a paradoxical temperature increase during cognitive stress in some chronic pain patients.

A total of 224 chronic pain somatoform disorder patients without obvious pathophysiology or psychopathology were found to have colder hands than nonpatients. A paradoxical temperature increase (PTI) in response to a cognitive stressor (mental arithmetic) was noted in a subset of these chronic pain patients. Patients were defined as "PTI" responders if, during cognitive stress, an increase in digital temperature occurred over a prior eyes closed resting condition. It was found that 49.4% of males and 42.6% of females in a total sample of 224 patients demonstrated PTI. The PTI patients had significantly colder hands than non-PTI patients prior to stress. A concurrent SCL measure of sympathetic activation found no difference between the PTI and non-PTI groups either at baseline or during cognitive stress. It appears from this data that PTI is specific to the peripheral vascular system of these patients and may be a marker of psychophysiological dissociation or trauma blocked from consciousness.

Somatization. Concepts, data, and predictions from the high risk model of threat perception.

Eighty-three consecutive patients with chronic somatic complaints seen prior to therapy were tested on the eight factors of the High Risk Model of Threat Perception. Thirty-two percent were high and 28% were low on hypnotic ability, which is more highs and lows than would be expected in a normal population. In the high and low hypnotic ability somatizers, the distribution of somatic and psychological symptoms is significantly different from the moderate group. Counterintuitively, hypnotic ability and major life change were orthogonal to all of the other risk factors. These findings are consistent with eight of nine predictions from the High Risk Model of Threat Perception.