Word: chronic
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Some children, like some adults, have chronic, unexplainable pain. They have backaches every day or their legs and feet hurt every day or their necks throb constantly - and no one is sure why. Doctors call this pain idiopathic, a medical term for "we have no clue." Idiopathic pain arises spontaneously and without a known cause...
That's why a study just published in the journal Pain is so encouraging. According to the study, clinicians who used a particular form of behavior therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with a group of 16 chronic-pain patients ages 10 to 18 saw remarkable results: after just 10 weeks of ACT sessions, during which patients were taught strategies for accepting chronic pain so they could pursue important goals, those kids suffered less intensely and functioned significantly better day to day than did a control group of 16 chronic-pain kids who had been treated the way kids...
Rather, ACT promotes the acceptance of negative thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations (like chronic pain) that a patient may have struggled with for a long time. The goal is to observe and be mindful of your crummy thoughts and feelings without getting mired in them - and to be able to act in accordance with your values (like, say, going to work every day or not drinking too much) despite them. In short, ACT therapists encourage engagement with life even when it hurts. (Learn about how ACT works and the fascinating psychologist who created...
...extra one or two ACT sessions with their parents present). During the sessions, the therapists emphasized that the kids should go out and do what they truly loved even if they were hurting that day - in other words, that they should accept rather than try to avoid their chronic pain. To shift kids away from focusing only on alleviating their symptoms, therapists discussed how their pain was not caused by a harmful disease or injury and how previous strategies (such as taking painkillers) had not worked. Kids were encouraged instead to notice and accept discomfort and to get back into...
Stem-Cell Study Moves Ahead I was thrilled to read about Douglas Melton in the article "The Quest Resumes" [Feb. 9]. The work he and his colleagues are doing will result in numerous lives being saved and an end to the untold suffering of many who deal with chronic illnesses. Ali Curry, Holbrook...