Cet article présente des pratiques cliniques récentes et validées en psychologie de la santé, notamment pour la gestion de la douleur et des maladies chroniques. Des techniques telles que l’acceptation et l’engagement, et la pratique de la pleine conscience ont fait leurs preuves, ainsi que les exercices favorisant l’expérience d’émotions positives. Des méthodes issues des théories cognitives et comportementales permettent également une amélioration de la qualité de vie et de l’observance des patients atteints de pathologies sévères. Enfin, le biofeedback centré sur la variabilité cardiaque favorise le développement des ressources cognitives et émotionnelles des patients, leur permettant de mieux faire face au stress et de maintenir un état de santé optimal. Les limites de ces pratiques ainsi que des pistes de recherches sont proposées.

The aim of the present article is to present recent and validated clinical applications in the field of health psychology, in particular regarding pain and chronic disease management. Techniques such as acceptance and engagement therapy, mindfulness meditation and positive emotions enhancement have proved to be successful. Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. It is commonly defined as the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present. By this way, mindfulness meditation learns to patients with chronic pain to reduce their pain sensation. Moreover, encourage patients to have positive emotions, such as gratitude, is efficient in long term well-being. Prospective studies reveal that optimism, coping strategies such as positive reframing and acceptance, and social support yield less distress for patients with chronic disease. Similarly, psychosocial interventions that foster optimistic appraisals, build coping strategies, and bolster social support are benefit for patients. Other methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM), enable to significantly enhance quality of life, adaptation to illness and chronic disease patient compliance. This 10-week group CBSM intervention that includes anxiety reduction (relaxation training), cognitive restructuring, and coping skills training is tested among women with breast cancer and HIV patients. The intervention reduces reports of thought intrusion, anxiety and emotional distress. Furthermore, biofeedback through Heart Rate Variability appears to be an important component of the development of patient potential in terms of cognitive and emotional resources enabling better coping with stressful situations and hence maintaining optimal health conditions. Biofeedback treatment intervention on pain and quality of life is helpful in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic pain. Limits of these applications are discussed as well as future research directions.