tahlia skrev:

Vildsvin skrev:Kan du namnge några nya smärtillstånd?

How about fibromyalgi?

The study investigated the ability to identify facially expressed emotions in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and its association with clinical parameters. Thirty-five FMS patients and 35 healthy controls accomplished a face recognition task. Additionally, pain severity, alexithymia, depression, anxiety, psychiatric co-morbidity and medication use were assessed. The patients displayed reduced task performance in terms of more misclassifications of emotional expressions than controls. Pain severity, alexithymia, depression and anxiety were inversely related to recognition performance, with pain severity accounting for the largest portion of test score variance. Psychiatric co-morbidity and medication had no impact on performance. The study documented impaired emotion recognition in FMS, which may contribute to the interpersonal difficulties and reduced social functioning related to this condition.

kiddie skrev:Däremot kan man med NPF glömma adekvat vård om man har något, eftersom man inte sänder ut rätt signaler, dvs man blir inte trodd eller man anses inte ha ont fast man har det.

Sifneos (1972) coined the term alexithymia, literally “absence of words for emotion,” to describe people who lack the ability to communicate their feelings or have limited imagination (Lesser, 1985). The main aspects of alexithymia, which can be considered a deficit in cognitive processing and emotions regulation (Kooiman et al., 2004), are a difficulty in identifying and describing subjective feelings, a difficulty distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional arousal, restricted imagination processes, as evidenced by a lack of imagination, and a stimulus-bound, externally oriented cognitive style (Taylor et al., 1997). Alexithymic individuals are therefore incapable of adequately identifying physical sensations such as the somatic manifestations of emotions and may tend to misinterpret their emotional arousal as signs of disease (Lumley et al., 1996). This makes them susceptible to incorrectly attributing emotion-related physical symptoms to physical disease and to seeking medical care for symptoms for which no medical explanations can be found (Tuzer et al., 2011).
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ALEXITHYMIA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS IN FIBROMYALGIA SYNDROME
The presence of psychological distress, especially depression and anxiety, is a well-known aspect of FM syndrome and has been reported in many studies (Fietta et al., 2007). At the same time, the increased prevalence of alexithymia in patients with depression is now well-established (Honkalampi et al., 2000). It is therefore important to clarify whether or not the prevalence of alexithymia in FM patients can be accounted for simply by the presence of depressive symptoms. In the studies discussed above, the role of psychological distress, in particular depression, is highlighted in mediating the relationship between FM and alexithymia. As mentioned before, Steinweg et al. (2011) found that the higher levels of alexithymia seen in FM patients were due only to the presence of moderate to severe depression, since the differences in alexithymia scores became insignificant when controlled for depression rate. On the other hand, Castelli et al. (2012), studying the quality of life in FM patients found, in both regression analyses performed, that when the psychological distress variables were added as competing predictors, alexithymia ceased to be significant in explaining the health-related quality of life variance. A possible interpretation, given by the authors, is that the inability of individuals with high degrees of alexithymia to identify accurately their own feelings limits not only their ability to regulate their emotions, but also verbal communication of psychological distress, with a potentially negative impact on depression and anxiety levels (Taylor et al., 1997). Similarly, investigating the types of causal attributions in women with chronic pain, Tuzer et al. (2011) found that the significant relationship between alexithymia scores, the number of somatic symptoms, and psychological attributions, in the FM group, became insignificant when the effects of psychological distress variables were controlled for. In other words, the former association appeared to be caused simply by the effects of depression and anxiety on the FM patients.

These results reveal the strong link between alexithymia and psychological distress in FM syndrome, especially depression. So it is essential for further research to consider the impact of alexithymia trait and its possible relationship with psychological distress and psychiatric disorders.

The results show that patients with FM have impairments both in the regulation of their own affect and in the recognition of other’s emotions, as well as in representing other people’s affective mental states. There is evidence that appropriate behaviour in social interactions is determined by the ability to decipher information about the intentions and affective states of social partners. Thus, impairments in facial affect recognition and difficulties in accurately inferring other people’s affective mental states may lead to substantial difficulties in interpersonal contacts (e.g. interaction problems with family and friends, or social isolation), which have been already reported in patients with FM [95]. Furthermore, poor psychosocial functioning and unsatisfactory relationships might contribute to the genesis and maintenance of chronic pain [96], intensifying the symptomatology in individuals with FM.

Vildsvin skrev:Kan det vara så att det är samma avvikelse i hjärnan som gör att aspergare och fibromyalgipatienter har svårt att läsa av andra människor?