Aim and Background: Migraine is one of the most common types of headache and significantly impacts patients’ performance and may even be disabling. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of catastrophizing and pain-related anxiety with this health problem. Methods and Materials: This study was a cross-sectional, correlational research. For the purpose of this study, 178 patients who had been diagnosed with migraine by a neurologist, and referred to private neurology clinics and hospitals in Tehran, Iran, were selected through convenience sampling. The participants completed the Headache Disability Inventory (HDI), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS-20). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software using the Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis. Findings: A significant positive correlation was observed between both variables of catastrophizing (R = 0.64) and pain-related anxiety (R = 0.62), and headache-related disability. Pain-related anxiety predicted 36% of the variance in headache-related disability (P < 0.001). With the entry of the subscales of the variable of catastrophizing, the predictability reduced. This signifies the important influence of catastrophizing and its subscales in the prediction of headache-related disability. Conclusions: This study emphasized the role of psychological variables in predicting headache-related disability in patients with migraine. According to the findings, the degree of catastrophizing can be a predictor of headache-related disability; therefore, the consideration of the role of this variable in patients with chronic migraine is one of the important clinical themes of this study. This could help to improve the quality of life in individuals with migraine.
Aim and Background : In recent decades, cancer has been considered by many as the most important cause of mortality in the world, with a large amount of studies in psychology. Theerfore, present study seeks out the effectiveness of positive psychology on pain catastrophizing and life expectancy of women with breast cancer. Methods and Materials: The present study was a quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group and one-month follow-up period. The statistical population of this study included all women with breast cancer who referring to Isfahan Milad Hospital in spring 2015. Thirty of them were selected through available and targeted sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (each group was 15). Positive psychology interventions were performed on a test group for 8 sessions of 90 minutes, but not given to the control group. The tools used in this study were Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and Hope Questionnaire (HQ). Data analysis was done using one-way ANOVA with repeated measures and using SPSS software version 20. Finding: The results of the training and follow up showed that positive psychology interventions had an effect on the life expectancy of women with breast cancer (p<0.05), but did not affect the pain catastrophizing (p>0.05). Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, these interventions can increase the life expectancy of women with breast cancer and reflect new horizons in clinical interventions and can be used as effective interventions.
