The results of the present brain imaging study suggest that the unpleasantness of subjectively perceived dyspnea is processed in the right human anterior insula and amygdala.

Cancer patients often have to deal with severe side effects and psychological distress during cancer treatment, which have a substantial impact on their quality of life. Among psychosocial interventions for reducing treatment-related side effects, relaxation and imagery were most investigated in controlled trials. In this study, meta-analytic methods were used to synthesize published, randomized intervention-control studies aiming to improve patients' treatment-related symptoms and emotional adjustment by relaxation training. Mean weighted effect sizes were calculated for 12 categories, treatment-related symptoms (nausea, pain, blood pressure, pulse rate) and emotional adjustment (anxiety, depression, hostility, tension, fatigue, confusion, vigor, overall mood). Significant positive effects were found for the treatment-related symptoms. Relaxation training also proved to have a significant effect on the emotional adjustment variables depression, anxiety and hostility. Additionally, two studies point to a significant effect of relaxation on the reduction of tension and amelioration of the overall mood. Intervention features of the relaxation training, the time the professional spent with the patient overall (intervention intensity) and the schedule of the intervention (offered in conjunction with or independent of medical treatment to the cancer patient) were relevant to the effect of relaxation on anxiety. The interventions offered independently of medical treatment proved to be significantly more effective for the outcome variable anxiety. Relaxation seems to be equally effective for patients undergoing different medical procedures (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, hyperthermia). According to these results relaxation training should be implemented into clinical routine for cancer patients in acute medical treatment.

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Background-Previous studies have demonstrated a specific cognitive bias for sad stimuli in currently depressed patients; little is known, however, about whether this bias persists after recovery from the depressive episode. Depression is frequently observed in patients with asthma and is associated with a worse course of the disease. Given these high rates of co-morbidity, we could expect to observe a similar bias towards sad stimuli in patients with asthma.

This study strongly supports the assumption that patients with eating disorders are at risk for self-injurious behavior and points to the necessity of a routine screening for self-injurious behavior as well as the development of a standardized questionnaire. Group comparisons point to the relevance of traumatic experiences and comorbid dissociative phenomenology.

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The present study tested a short intervention using goal-pursuit strategies to increase physical capacity in pain patients. Sixty chronic back pain patients were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Both groups followed a 3-week conventional back pain program at an outpatient back pain center. Instead of routine treatment, the intervention group received a one-hour intervention consisting of a combination of (a) a goal-setting strategy (i.e., mental contrasting, MC) aimed at commitment to improved physical capacity, (b) a short cognitive behavioral therapy-oriented problem-solving approach (CBT) to help patients overcome the obstacles associated with improving physical capacity, and (c) a goal-pursuit strategy, i.e., implementation intentions (II) aimed at performing physical exercise regularly. At two follow-ups (3 weeks after discharge and 3 months after returning home) the MCII-CBT group had increased its physical capacity significantly more than the control group as measured by both behavioral measures (ergometer, lifting) and subjective ratings. Findings are discussed with relation to the use of the intervention as a specific treatment to increase chronic pain patients' motivation to be physically active.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) or high-frequency heart rate variability has been widely used as a noninvasive measure of cardiac vagal tone. However, their dependency on both respiration rate and tidal volume is largely ignored. Only a minority of studies published in Psychosomatic Medicine in recent years has implemented precautions for controlling respiration rate in RSA measures, and tidal volume effects were only rarely addressed. We discuss methodologic issues related to respiratory control methods and present data that demonstrate that both respiration rate and tidal volume contribute substantially to the within-individual RSA variance under conditions of variable breathing, with tidal volume contributing up to one third beyond respiration rate. Finally, we outline a respiratory control method for the time-domain index of RSA and review research pertaining to its reliability, validity, and experimental application.