The working alliance and Clinician-assisted Emotional Disclosure for rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES: The working alliance predicts improvement following general psychotherapy, but how it operates in brief interventions conducted with medically ill patients is unknown. Also, the role of the working alliance may differ in emotion-focused versus educational interventions. METHODS: We report secondary analyses of a randomized clinical trial (Keefe et al.) [35], in which patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) received four nurse-provided sessions of either a) Clinician-assisted Emotional Disclosure (CAED), which emphasized the disclosure, expression, and processing of emotions related to stressful events; or b) Arthritis Education (AE), which provided basic education about RA. The Working Alliance Inventory was completed by both patient and nurse after each session. Patients were evaluated on multiple health measures at baseline and 1, 3, and 12months post-treatment. RESULTS: Analyses compared the alliance between interventions and related the alliance to outcomes within interventions. Patients in CAED reported a lower alliance than patients in AE. Interestingly, in CAED, lower alliance ratings predicted better outcomes (improved functioning, lower pain behaviors, lower inflammation, lower daily stress), whereas in AE, the working alliance was largely not predictive of outcomes. CONCLUSION: Having nurses encourage emotional disclosure among patients with RA reduced the patients' working alliance, but a lower alliance nonetheless predicted better patient outcomes, perhaps reflecting successful engagement in an intervention that is emotionally and relationally challenging. The level and predictive validity of the working alliance likely depends on patient, provider, and intervention factors, and further study of the working alliance in psychosocial interventions in the medical context is needed.

Applying centrality of event to persistent pain: a preliminary view.

UNLABELLED: Living with persistent pain is a complex experience. Based on clinical observations, persistent pain is often described as a stressful life event that has significantly altered how patients view themselves and the world around them. The Centrality of Event Scale (CES) assesses how much a stressful life event serves as a turning point in the individual's life, forms a reference point for personal identity, and affects the attribution of meaning to other life experiences. In this study, 47 patients with persistent pain were asked to complete the CES using "the experience of persistent pain" as the designated stressful life event. Data analyses revealed patients scoring high on the CES (ie, those who viewed persistent pain as a central life event) were significantly more likely to experience higher levels of pain intensity (r = .35, P = .02), life interference due to pain (r = .50, P = .002), and psychological distress (r = .46, P = .001). Additional analyses revealed that the CES was a significant predictor of life interference due to pain and psychological distress even after controlling for the effects of age, sex, education, and pain intensity. PERSPECTIVE: The experience of persistent pain can serve as a major turning point in patients' lives, affect patients' interpretations of other life events, and become a key component of patients' identities. The results of this study indicate that centrality of event, a relatively new construct, could improve our understanding of persistent pain.

Psychological interventions for arthritis pain management in adults: a meta-analysis.

CONTEXT: The psychosocial impact of arthritis can be profound. There is growing interest in psychosocial interventions for managing pain and disability in arthritis patients. OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis reports on the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for arthritis pain and disability. DATA SOURCES: Articles evaluating psychosocial interventions for arthritis were identified through Cochrane Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Ovid MEDLINE, and Ovid PsycINFO data sources. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials testing the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in arthritis pain management were reviewed. DATA EXTRACTION: Twenty-seven randomized controlled trials were analyzed. Pain intensity was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included psychological, physical, and biological functioning. DATA SYNTHESIS: An overall effect size of 0.177 (95% CI=0.256-0.094) indicated that patients receiving psychosocial interventions reported significantly lower pain than patients in control conditions (combined p=.01). Meta-analyses also supported the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for the secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that psychosocial interventions may have significant effects on pain and other outcomes in arthritis patients. Ample evidence for the additional benefit of such interventions over and above that of standard medical care was found.

Psychological aspects of persistent pain: current state of the science.

UNLABELLED: This article provides an overview of current research on psychological aspects of persistent pain. It is divided into 3 sections. In section 1, recent studies are reviewed that provide evidence that psychological factors are related to adjustment to persistent pain. This section addresses research on factors associated with increased pain and poorer adjustment to pain (ie, pain catastrophizing, pain-related anxiety and fear of pain, and helplessness) and factors associated with decreased pain and improved adjustment to pain (ie, self-efficacy, pain coping strategies, readiness to change, and acceptance). In section 2, we review recent research on behavioral and psychosocial interventions for patients with persistent pain. Topics addressed include early intervention, tailoring treatment, telephone/Internet-based treatment, caregiver-assisted treatment, and exposure-based protocols. In section 3, we conclude with a general discussion that highlights steps needed to advance this area of research including developing more comprehensive and integrative conceptual models, increasing attention to the social context of pain, examining the link of psychological factors to pain-related brain activation patterns, and investigating the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of psychological treatments for pain. PERSPECTIVE: This is one of several invited commentaries to appear in The Journal of Pain in recognition of The Decade of Pain Research. This article provides an overview of current research on psychological aspects of persistent pain, and highlights steps needed to advance this area of research.