islamabad - ‘I won’t be able to cope with my pain if I don’t sleep well’ - research from the University of Warwick reveals that the way chronic pain patients think about pain and sleep leads to insomnia and poor management of pain.

Researchers from the Sleep and Pain Lab in the Department of Psychology have demonstrated that conditions like back pain, fibromyalgia, and arthritis are directly linked with negative thoughts about insomnia and pain, and this can be effectively managed by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

Esther Afolalu and colleagues have formulated a pioneering scale to measure beliefs about sleep and pain in long-term pain patients, alongside their quality of sleep - the first of its type to combine both pain and sleep and explore the vicious cycle between sleep and pain problems.  The scale was tested on four groups of patients suffering from long-term pain and bad sleeping patterns, with the result showing that people who believe they won’t be able to sleep as a result of their pain are more likely to suffer from insomnia, thus causing worse pain.

The results show that the scale was vital in predicting patients’ level of insomnia and pain difficulties. With better sleep, pain problems are significantly reduced, especially after receiving a short course of CBT for both pain and insomnia.

The study has provided therapists the means with which to identify and monitor rigid thoughts about sleep and pain that are sleep-interfering, allowing the application of the proven effective CBT for insomnia in people with chronic pain.

Esther Afolalu explains, “Current psychological treatments for chronic pain have mostly focused on pain management and a lesser emphasis on sleep but there is a recent interest in developing therapies to tackle both pain and sleep problems simultaneously. This scale provides a useful clinical tool to assess and monitor treatment progress during these therapies.”

Dr Nicole Tang, the study senior author, comments, “Thoughts can have a direct and/or indirect impact on our emotion, behaviour and even physiology. The way how we think about sleep and its interaction with pain can influence the way how we cope with pain and manage sleeplessness. Based on clinical experience, whilst some of these beliefs are healthy and useful, others are rigid and misinformed. The new scale, PBAS, is developed to help us pick up those beliefs that have a potential role in worsening the insomnia and pain experience.”

Islamabad all set to host YPF’s Int’l seminar on Kashmir

The Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) National Assembly of Pakistan will hold a two-day international seminar on Kashmir from 5th January 2017 in Islamabad.

The seminar is scheduled to be held in Islamabad in which guests from various countries including top Hurriyet leaders of occupied Kashmir, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik have been invited.

Moreover, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will deliver Keynote address while Advisor to PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan Barjees Tahir, Kashmir Committee Chairman Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan and the AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider are expected to address the seminar.

The seminar would be conducted under the patronage of Speaker of National Assembly of Pakistan and would analyze various dimensions of the Kashmir dispute with a particular focus on its humanitarian aspect and look into the prospects of its resolution in the larger interest of the global security.

It is to mention here that the seminar is a part of a series of initiatives that YPF plans to undertake where the body is being assisted and partnered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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