Psychological Interventions: A Psychological Analysis

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Psychological strategies
The pain is a multifaceted biopsychosocial framework that shaped not only by underlying pathophysiology but also by individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Darnall, 2016). The relation between psychological conditions and pain perception or response to pain therapy is not elucidated fully in SCD patients. However, majority of the psychological interventions are based on the foundational theories of cognitive behavioral, biobehavioral, and acceptance-based models. Pain is not only related to the extent of physical injuries or the severity of disease. Pain often takes over a person’s life and they focus more on the pain and a vicious cycle develops hence parenting and family background play a major role in the
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Psychological methods target the thinking, behaving, and feeling components of pain. There are many psychological treatments available to treat children and adolescents pain, including education, counselling, imagery, hypnosis, biofeedback, and behavioural strategies (Friedrichsdorf et al., 2016). These treatments are directed at the emotional, intellectual, and behavioural factors that influence pain and disability. One of the most popular psychological methods of pain reduction is to provide age appropriate information about the pain, consequences, coping strategies and resources to control the pain. The goal of this is to encounter situations safely, without previously experienced distress, to unlink from the associated anxiety. A variety of skills and strategies may be applied in helping children, adolescents and parents in management of sickle cell pain. Most frequently used interventions include cognitive behavioral treatments, self-regulation strategies, interventions aimed to produce behavioral change, psychosocial support treatments, and educational programs …show more content…
Although there is no significant outcome with training in relaxation, cognitive strategies, thermal biofeedback, and self-hypnosis techniques showed trends in reduced contact with hospital staff, medication, and hospital stay (Thomas et al., 1984). Case study using relaxation, imagery, and biofeedback techniques revealed that these self-regulation techniques are very much helpful in individuals with mild sickle cell pain (Hall et al., 1992, Cozzi et al., 1987). Single-session biofeedback-assisted relaxation training improved health-related quality of life and pain-related disability (Myrvik et al., 2012). A randomized, controlled, single-crossover protocol of hypnosis for managing pain in SCD patients revealed that the self-hypnosis is beneficial in modulating chronic pain improved sleep quality (Wallen et al., 2014). In patients with SCD, a single 30-minute hypnosis session increased peripheral vasodilation and decreased pain intensity by a moderate extent (Bhatt et al., 2017). Combination of cognitive behavioural therapy with self-hypnosis, significantly reduced frequency of pain episodes and reduced the dependence on pain medication in SCD patients (Dinges et al., 1997). The intervention was more effective against milder vaso-occlusive pain, but not for