60 - EFFECT OF A PHYSICAL EXERCISES PROGRAM AND COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL AND SOMATIC TECHNIQUES ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF PAIN IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Introduction A great number of people suffer of some type of pain in different intensities and frequencies. The effect of pain interferes in the daily routines of the affected people varying with its intensity, in some cases it can harm one in the daily activities linked with work, study and leisure, causing suffering until one's incapacity. Even in lower intensity pain influences in one's quality of life, in the case of university students' it could interfere in their academic efficiency. According to Matheny et al. (2002) the adaptation process to the university life happens in an individual way, it could be a difficult task for some adolescents and young adults. The more and more demanding and competitive academic environment and the distance from the family for some are added up matters to the youths' daily tasks that need to be overcome. The students have different ways of adapting to these stress factors. While some adjust themselves actively to the daily academic pressures, making out of them opportunities of personal development, others show difficulties in this process, developing physical and emotional problems, using drugs and even abandoning the studies in the university. The way how each person adapts himself to a certain stress pattern is an individual process and it will depend on factors related to the overcoming resources that each person developed. The overcoming resources of emotional, physical or financial order contribute in the adaptation process of the stressful factors imposed by the academic routine to some students. According to Diener (2000) the dissatisfaction with life can be an indicative symptom of stress, on the other hand the sensation contrary to the satisfaction towards life works as an important component for the well being. For Winkelman (1994) low standards of sleep, high anxiety degrees and somatic manifestations of pain are common symptoms in stress bearers. The lack of mechanisms adaptable to stress can generate in the university students physical and mental exhaustion. These symptoms may cause the development of acute and chronic illnesses (HIROKAWA et al. 2002). One of the most common somatic manifestations produced by the stress besides the insomnia is pain that can happen together with other symptoms. This problem affects several university students that feel different intensities of pain, sharp or chronic, in several parts of the body (BECKER JÚNIOR, 2003). Pain is a complex problem that involves physiological mechanisms, behavioral and social factors, manifesting itself in different ways in each person. The pain perception, for instance, is more significant in the female gender, being a consensus the differences between men and women in the experience with pain. According to Berkley et al. (1999) women have a larger number of pain frequency and also in more corporal areas. Studies demonstrate differences among gender, pain and analgesia due to the gonadic hormones. For Fillingin (2004) the psychosocial aspects will also influence it, suggesting differentiated treatments for the treatment of pain according to the gender and psychosocial condition. The physical exercises have demonstrated excellent results in the prevention, promotion and rehabilitation of health. Their effects on the organism have been more and more related in the scientific literature, although their association with the promotion of health was already for a long time recognized, since before the scientific and technological development in the western and oriental cultures, in the management of pain as well. They could even be considered an important non-pharmacological resource of proven action (HUARD, 1990; SHERMAN, K, 2005; LLACQUA, G. E., 1994; SMETTS et al. 2006). In the psychobiological aspect, we can point out the effect of exercises in the improvement of the sleep, humor upsets, memory, drug addiction, anxiety and depression (SAINTS, 2004). According to Mello et al. (2005) exercise promotes biochemical, physiologic and psychological alterations acting in the improvement of health. The cognitive and behavioral techniques base their action in the modification or adjustment of the main determinant of behavior, that are the thought, perception, memory, affection and language. In the same way that all the patterns can be learned, forgotten and changed, the cognitive factors can also be modified. In the other hand the somatic techniques are concentrated interventions in the adjustment of corporal reactions as the muscular tension, heart frequency and breathing frequency. Also known as "techniques of relaxation" it is a component common in most of the programs of psychological preparation that seek the control of stress, of anxiety and the motor improvement (BECKER JÚNIOR & SAMULSKI, 2002). Several studies reveal the applicability of the cognitive behavioral and somatic techniques in the management and decrease of the pain levels mainly in the chronic pain (HAYDEN et al. 2005; COOK, 2003; HIROKAWA et al. 2002). The main advantages are the easiness of its application, the expressive positive results in the treatment of chronic pain and the fact that it does not have common side effects as those of the medicated treatment.