Fukunaga, Mikihiko

Background: Alexithymia, or difficulty identifying and describing emotions and sensations, contributes to an increased risk of chronic pain, and low help-seeking. Objective: To investigate whether family caregivers of advanced cancer patients visiting a palliative care department had alexithymia, and whether this was related to their pain intensity, personalized pain goals, and help-seeking for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Design: A single-center cross-sectional survey.

Background: Self-care systems for early-stage specialist palliative care for cancer patients and their family caregivers have received much attention recently. Resonant breathing is an established method for maximizing heart rate variability (HRV), but it has not been implemented for home self-care. Objective: We aimed to examine the usefulness and ease of implementation for family caregivers to administer resonant breathing using a portable device at home.