Reduced variability of postural strategy prevents normalization of motor changes induced by back pain: A risk factor for chronic trouble?

Variability is fundamental to biological systems and is important in posturomotor learning and control. Pain induces a protective postural strategy, although variability is normally preserved. If variability is lost, does the normal postural strategy return when pain stops? Sixteen subjects performed arm movements during control trials, when the movement evoked back pain and then when it did not. Variability in the postural strategy of the abdominal muscles and pain-related cognitions were evaluated. Only those subjects for whom pain induced a reduction in variability of the postural strategy failed to return to a normal strategy when pain stopped. They were also characterized by their pain-related cognitions. Ongoing perception of threat to the back may exert tighter evaluative control over variability of the postural strategy.

Chronic illness in non-heterosexual contexts: towards a critical LGBTQ health psychology

In this thesis, I contribute to the expansion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) psychology by examining chronic illness within non-heterosexual contexts. Chronic illness, beyond the confines of HIV/AIDS, has been a neglected topic in LGBTQ psychology and sexual identity is often overlooked within health psychology. When the health of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people has been considered there has been an over-reliance on quantitative methods and comparative approaches which seek to compare LGB people?s health to their heterosexual counterparts. In contrast, I adopt a critical perspective and qualitative methods to explore LGBTQ health. My research brings together ideas from LGBTQ psychology and critical health psychology to explore non-heterosexuals? experiences of chronic illness and the discursive contexts within which LGB people live with chronic health conditions. I also highlight the heteronormativity which pervades academic health psychology as well as the „lay? health literature. The research presented in this thesis draws on three different sources of qualitative data: a qualitative online questionnaire (n=190), an online discussion within a newsgroup for people with diabetes, and semi-structured interviews with 20 LGB people with diabetes. These data are analysed using critical realist forms of thematic analysis and discourse analysis. In the first analytic chapter (Chapter 3), I report the perspectives of LGB people living with many different chronic illnesses and how they felt their sexuality shapes their experiences of illness. In Chapter 4, I examine heterosexism within an online discussion and consider the ways in which sexuality is constructed as (ir)relevant to a diabetes support forum. In Chapter 5, I analyse LGB people?s talk about the support family and partners provide in relation to their diabetes and how they negotiate wider discourses of gender, sexuality and individualism. In Chapter 6 I explore how diabetes intersects with gay and bisexual men?s sex lives. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the contributions of my research for a critical LGBTQ health psychology and identify some possible areas for future research.

Deep brain stimulation for chronic pain investigated with magnetoencephalography

Deep brain stimulation has shown remarkable potential in alleviating otherwise treatment-resistant chronic pain, but little is currently known about the underlying neural mechanisms. Here for the first time, we used noninvasive neuroimaging by magnetoencephalography to map changes in neural activity induced by deep brain stimulation in a patient with severe phantom limb pain. When the stimulator was turned off, the patient reported significant increases in subjective pain. Corresponding significant changes in neural activity were found in a network including the mid-anterior orbitofrontal and subgenual cingulate cortices; these areas are known to be involved in pain relief. Hence, they could potentially serve as future surgical targets to relieve chronic pain. © 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.