Health Psychology

• The gate mentioned in the gate control theory is found in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
• MPQ stands for the McGill pain questionnaire.
• The MPQ has 78 words that the patient chooses to describe their pain.
• VAS is a scale used to measure pain on a continuum from no pain to extreme pain.
• VAS stands for Visual Analogue Scale
• Weaknesses of biological treatments for pain:

  • Addiction (especially opioids).
  • Has side effects like indigestion, headaches, etc.
• Strengths of biological treatment strengths:

  • Very effective (depending on their potency).
• There are three ways to measure pain, they include:

  • Subjective (clinical interviews).
  • Psychometric (visual rating scales).
  • Behavioural/observational (UAB scales).
• UAB stands for University of Alabama Pain Behaviour Scale.
• The UAB scale is made up of 10 target behaviours, that the person observing the patient must record in detail about each target behaviour for a period of time.
• Psychological treatments for pain include:

  • Attention diversion: diverting your attention away from your pain and onto something else.
  • Cognitive redefinition: replacing the harmful and threatening thoughts with good thoughts.
  • Non-pain imagery: thinking about a calm or relaxing situation to take your mind off the pain.
• Acupuncture works by releasing endorphins and by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.
• Advantages of acupuncture:

  • Side effects and complications are rare.

  Disadvantages of acupuncture:

  • Effectiveness is mixed, its hard to tell if you're actually feeling the effects or if its just a placebo
• GAS has three stages that state how our body changes biologically when under stress.
• The three stages of GAS:

  • Alarm reaction stage.
  • Resistance stage.
  • Exhaustion stage
• The alarm reaction stage talks about when our bodies are initially exposed to the stressor and how our body goes into the flight or fight response. During that time our heart rate increases, our palms get sweaty, and our breathing speeds up.
• The resistance phase is the phase where our bodies stop being exposed to the stressor, our bodies start to come down from the flight or fight high and go back to normal. But if we are still exposed to the stressor, our bodies still remain in that fight or flight mode and cortisol is still secreted.
• The exhaustion stage talks about what happens when we are exposed to prolonged periods of stress. Our bodies become worn down physically, and psychologically, and they won't be able to fight the stress effectively anymore.
• When we get stressed, we secrete a chemical called cortisol.
• Minor effects of stress:

  • Headaches
  • Insomnia
  • Heartburn
  • Nausea
• Effects of chronic stress:

  • Type 2 diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Weakened immune system