purpose. To uncover what adolescent mothers view as their childhood struggles, their transition to the role of motherhood following a childhood of abuse/neglect, and their important relationships after they became parents.
design. Qualitative, phenomenological.
setting. Community‐based parenting program for first‐time mothers at risk for abusing or neglecting their children.
participants. Seven first‐time mothers, ages 13 to 20, who reported they had been abused and/or neglected as children. All had healthy newborns.
results. Five themes emerged from the data: impoverished past, disintegration of relationships, emotional distance, problem fixing, and reconnecting. Participants described a process of using the experience of pregnancy and parenting as a mechanism for growth. Becoming a parent provided an opportunity to receive support from family members and to build more positive relationships. They viewed the experience as a second chance for a successful and fulfilling life.
The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the relationships between pain perceptions, immune function, depression and health behaviors and 2) to examine the effects of chronic pain on immune function using depression and health behaviors as covariates. A nonexperimental cross-sectional design was used to compare 24 chronic back pain patients with 33 asymptomatic no-pain healthy subjects. Immune function measures using natural killer (NK) cell activity, percent and numbers of NK cells, and T-cell lymphocyte proliferation with mitogens concanavalin A (ConA) and pytohemagglutinin (PHA) as well as self-report measures for depression and health behaviors were collected on all subjects. Pain perceptions showed positive significant correlations with depression (P = 0.01) and total percent of NK cells (P = 0.04). Depression and health behaviors were negatively correlated (P = 0.01). Positive associations were observed for depression and 2 PHA mitogen levels (P < 0.05). Comparison of group means, controlling for depression and health behaviors, showed that chronic pain patients' immune function, as measured by the combined NK effector to target (E:T) cell ratio levels, was significantly higher than the no-pain comparison group. Pain perceptions may have a deleterious effect on enumerative NK cell measures and depression levels. However, people with chronic pain may not experience attenuation in functional immune parameters.
The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effects of a multimodal pain rehabilitation program on pain perceptions, opioid usage, activity, down time, sleep, and role function status of 23 chronic pain patients. Data were collected at the start of the program, at the program's completion, and again during a follow-up period (3-11 months afterwards). At the end of the program, patients reported a significant reduction in pain levels, opioid usage, and hours of disturbed sleep. During the follow-up period, patients continued to report significant improvements in activity and role functions as well as significant reductions in opioid usage, sleep disturbance, and down time. These findings provided encouraging preliminary evidence that multimodal pain rehabilitation programs for chronic pain patients may be effective in pain management and functional restoration.
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