Pressure pain sensitivity as a marker for stress and pressure pain sensitivity-guided stress management in women with primary breast cancer

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Christen K Axelsson
  • Søren Ballegaard
  • Benny Karpatschof
  • Peer Schousen

OBJECTIVES: To validate (1) Pressure Pain Sensitivity (PPS) as a marker for stress and (2) a PPS-guided intervention in women with primary Breast Cancer (BC).

METHODS: (1) A total of 58 women with BC were examined before and after 6 months of intervention. A control group of 165 women office employees was divided in a High Stress Group (HSG, n = 37) and a Low Stress Group (LSG, n = 128) to evaluate the association between PPS, questionnaire-related Quality of Life (QOL) and self-evaluated stress. (2) A PPS-guided stress management program (n = 40) was compared to a Psychosocial Group Intervention (PGI, n = 91) and no treatment (n = 86) with respect to a European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire measured QOL.

RESULTS: (1) Resting PPS and changes in PPS during the intervention period correlated significantly to EORTC and Short Form 36 (SF 36) main scores: (all p < 0.05). Between BC, HSG and LSG there was a significant and positive correlation with respect to PPS, SF 36 main scores, depression, and clinical stress scores (all p < 0.05). However, the BC group scored significantly lower than both HSG and LSG (both p < 0.05) with respect to self-evaluated stress. (2) The PPS-guided intervention group improved EORTC main score, pain and nausea, when compared to the control groups (all p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: PPS was positively associated with QOL, which was in contrast to self-evaluated stress. PPS-guided intervention improved QOL in women with breast cancer.

Original languageEnglish
JournalScandinavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation
Volume74
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)399-407
Number of pages9
ISSN0036-5513
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014

ID: 138898892