Estrés y vulnerabilidad a las lesiones deportivas / Stress and vulnerabiliity to sports injuries

Considerando la aportación de las principales investigaciones en este ámbito, en este artículo se comenta la posible relación entre el estrés psicosocial y las lesiones deportivas, destacando el papel de las variables ambientales y personales que parecen aumentar la vulnerabilidad de los deportistas a lesionarse. (AU)

Psychological treatment of asthma: effectiveness of a self-management program with and without relaxation training.

Twenty-seven asthmatic children were allocated to three experimental conditions. The first group received an asthma self-management program; the second group received the same program together with progressive relaxation training; the third group was maintained initially as a control. The self-management program was effective in increasing the frequency of asthma care behavior, but no significant changes were observed in clinical or pulmonary function variables. The relaxation technique did not improve the efficacy of treatment. When the comparison was restricted to children who displayed a low level of self-care practices, the self-management program proved to be effective in reducing attack duration, negative consequences of asthma for the child, and the level of therapeutic response to attacks.

Effectiveness of self-management programmes and relaxation training in the treatment of bronchial asthma: relationships with trait anxiety and emotional attack triggers.

Twenty-seven children with light to moderate asthma were allocated to three groups matched with respect to a number of subjects with (a) high trait anxiety and (b) emotionally triggered attacks (ET). The first group received an asthma self-management programme (SM) and the second the same programme including relaxation training (SM + R); the control group (CG) received only pharmacological treatment. Before and immediately after intervention, and at 6 and 12 month follow-ups, we evaluated a series of clinical and pulmonary function indicators of disease severity. Overall, patients receiving SM showed a significantly greater reduction in their subjective assessment of attack intensity and in the severity of the intervention measures employed. Inclusion of individual difference variables in the analysis also indicated that ET patients receiving SM + R showed significant decreases in attack duration, and improvements in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) with respect to ET patients in all other groups. Trait anxiety level did not affect response to either intervention.

Self-perception of asthmatic children and modification through self-management programmes.

To examine the influence of asthma on patients' self-perceptions, 48 children with light to moderate asthma and 41 healthy children were selected to complete Harter's Self-perception Profile for children. No differences between the groups were observed. Then, to assess the effects of a psychological asthma treatment programme on self-perception, 27 of the asthmatic children were selected and allocated to three groups of 9 patients. The first of these groups received an asthma self-management programme, the second received that programme plus training in progressive relaxation, and the third (as control) only standard pharmacological treatment. Immediately after intervention and at 6- and 12-mo. follow-ups subjects again completed Harter's profile on which no significant changes were observed.

Hyper-responsiveness of eccrine sweat glands to carbachol in anxiety neurosis: comparison of male and female patients.

The responsiveness of eccrine sweat glands to intradermally injected carbachol was studied in six male and six female healthy volunteers and six male and six female patients suffering from anxiety neurosis. Consistently greater responses to carbachol were obtained in the healthy males than in the healthy females. Analysis of the dose-response curves showed that this was reflected in a higher value of Emax in the males. Consistently greater responses to carbachol were obtained in the anxious males than in the healthy males, this being reflected in a higher value of Emax for the anxious subjects. Consistently greater responses to carbachol were obtained in the anxious females than in the healthy females, this being reflected in a higher value of Emax for the anxious subjects. In contrast to the results obtained with the healthy subjects, there was no sex-related difference in responsiveness to carbachol among the anxious patients. It is suggested that the hyper-responsiveness of sweat glands in anxiety states involves the sensitization of normally 'dormant' sweat glands by impulse flow in sudomotor sympathetic fibres. The upper limit to the value of Emax for carbachol, which may be determined by the number of potentially responsive glands, may be similar in the two sexes.