The Fear Avoidance Components Scale (FACS) is a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaire designed to comprehensively evaluate fear avoidance (FA) beliefs and attitudes in persons with painful medical conditions. The original English version has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties, including concurrent and predictive validity. Two factors have been identified: 1. general fear avoidance; and 2. types of activities that are avoided. The FACS was first translated into Serbian, and then psychometrically validated. A cohort of 322 chronic musculoskeletal pain subjects completed the FACS-Serb and additional FA-related patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Their FACS-Serb scores were then compared to a cohort of 68 acute pain subjects. Test-retest reliability (ICC2,1 = 0.928) and internal consistency for both Factors (Cronbach α 0.904 and 0,880 respectively) were very good. An acceptable fit was found with a confirmatory factor analysis of the 2-factor model found with the original English version of the FACS. Strong associations were found among FACS-Serb scores and other PRO measures of pain catastrophizing, depressive/anxiety symptoms, perceived disability, and pain intensity (p<0.001 for all analyses). FACS-Serb total scores, separate Factor scores, and subjective pain ratings were significantly higher in the chronic vs. acute pain cohorts (p<0.001 for all analyses). The FACS-Serb demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including strong reliability and internal consistency, criterion validity (through associations with other FA-related PRO measures), and discriminant validity (through comparisons with a separate acute pain cohort). The FACS-Serb appears to be a potentially useful pain-related assessment tool.

Background/Aim. Breast cancer is often accompanied by patients? unpleasant emotional states, which can significantly affect both the undergoing treatment and the quality of life of patients. The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in relation between emotional distress and various aspects of patients? quality of life, which would further indicate different psychotherapeutic interventions in psycho-oncological practice. Methods. The sample consisted of 97 breast cancer patients. Emotional distress was measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), cognitive emotion regulation strategies were measured using the Cognitive emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ-36), while various aspects of health related quality of life were assessed using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) questionnaire. Multiple simultaneous mediations between variables were established using the process macro INDIRECT for SPSS. Results. Positive refocusing had positive effects both on physical [a = -0.83, b = 0.50, ab = - 0.42, standard error (SE) = 0.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.17 ? 0.83] and emotional well-being (a = -0.83, b = 0.29, ab = 0.24, SE = 0.13; 95% CI = -0.01 ? 0.58) of the patients. Rumination negatively affected emotional wellbeing (a = -0.75, b = -0.33, ab = -0.25, SE = 0.16; 95% CI = -0.71 ? -0.01) of the patients. Catastrophizing had a negative impact on social (a = 0.96, b = 0.12, ab = -0.12, SE = 0.13; 95% CI = -0.33 ? -0.13) and functional well-being of the patients (a = 0.96, b = -0.16, ab = -0.15, SE = 0.09; 95% CI = -0.32 ? -0.01). Conclusion. Positive refocusing, rumination and catastrophizing are significant cognitive coping strategies through which the intensity of emotional distress significantly changes, and this can be subsequently reflected in different aspects of patients? health related quality of life. The above mentioned implies potential benefits of implementation of cognitive-behavioral trainings and interventions directed towards acquiring adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, in order to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.

The advent of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) has prolonged the life expectancy of HIV+individuals and decreased the incidence of HIV-associated dementia. However, milder forms of neurocognitive impairment remain common and are often associated with poor daily functioning and lower medication adherence. This paper presents a research aimed at exploring the cognitive status differences between HIV+subjects (N=39) on cART therapy and a group of demographically comparable healthy subjects (N=39) in Serbia. The significance of differences between the HIV+group and the healthy control group in performance in six cognitive domains was tested using the multivariate analysis of variance. Results showed a lower performance of the HIV+group in the domains of attention/working memory, and learning. HIV-related clinical variables were not significantly associated with cognitive performance. An older age in HIV+patients was significantly related to a lower performance in all six cognitive domains, as opposed to healthy subjects, implying a synergistic interaction between HIV and aging, resulting in accentuated cognitive difficulties. Our findings suggest that even with the absence of a subjective experience of cognitive deficits and with a good basic control of the illness, a certain degree of cognitive deficit can be observed in the tested group.