| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Monte |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 09:44:17
New research and response from Belleruth Narparstek. Belleruth is a psychologist and the queen of guided imagery. This is good info...but please don't get caught up in the "traumatic stress" scenarios...this is still a chronic pain disorder caused by our daily generation of inner stress!
Also you will notice in the research they speak to mindfulness reducing sympathetic nervous system activity! --- This is exactly why we engage in practices like root lock. Root lock, or the contraction of the perineal muscle, combined with mindful breathing communicates with the nervous system and reduces the activity that manifest into pain and symptoms. When you combine this type of practice with the knowledge of tms and consciously and deliberately begin paying attention and redirecting your thoughts and patterns into clean thinking you are now on the straight and narrow path of eliminating this disorder.---Monte Hueftle
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Monday, 17 August 2009 - from Health Journeys
Question:
I'd like to ask Belleruth about the seeming correlation between trauma and fibromyalgia in women. Has there been any research into this?
Answer:
Mary, I write about this in Invisible Heroes. At the time of publication there were only 2 studies published, showing the link between fibromyalgia and traumatic stress – for men or women, although either condition hits more women than men. Now there are too many studies to count, but you can start with a recent article by some Italian researchers, Stisi et al, titled Etiopathogenetic mechanisms of fibromyalgia syndrome. Robert Scaer was on to this years ago, and wrote about it in The Body Bears the Burden. But the short answer is YES, there is a big, fat correlation.
Here is an explanatory (or at least I hope so) excerpt of the relevant material from my book (and for those of you who have the book, it’s in Chapter 5, The Physical Effects of Trauma, pages 78-80.
Chronic Pain Conditions
This constant activation of the alarm state leads to an accumulation of metabolic waste products in the muscle fibers, and the release of kinins and other chemical pain generators in the tissue, resulting in myofascial pain and the appearance of those seemingly intractable chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headache, TMJ and more.
And because these conditions are generated in the brain stem and the motor reflex centers in the spinal column, and routed through a perturbed, automatic, arousal circuitry, peripheral forms of treatment provide only temporary relief. Constantly activated by everyday sensory cues, normal muscle movement and spontaneous memories, symptoms grow and become more and more entrenched over time. In other words, this is one nasty gift from the kindled feedback loop that, if not interrupted, will just keep on giving. Sound familiar?
Our epidemiology research has already shown us an astounding percentage of people with baffling chronic pain conditions and “functional” diseases that have no obvious causes, who have been found to have prior histories of severe trauma. Probably if we could tease out the subset of traumatized people who experienced substantial dissociation during their trauma, and a truncated freeze response in the midst of it, we might find closer to one hundred percent suffering from posttraumatic stress. Unfortunately for them, they are often assumed to be malingering or engaged in attention-seeking behavior for neurotic reasons, instead of suffering from a very serious, self perpetuating condition with a potentially worsening trajectory.
Included in this group of maligned and misunderstood patients would be scores of people suffering from pelvic and low back pain, orofacial and myofascial pain, genito-urinary and abdominal pain; interstitial cystitis; and the previously mentioned headache, fibromyalgia (FM), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD); irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and migraine. Thanks for asking. Too many people still don’t know about this connection.
All best,
Belleruth
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Research
Mindfulness Reduces Stress Arousal in Fibromyalgia Patients | Print | E-mail
Monday, 17 August 2009
Researchers from the University of Louisville in Kentucky looked at whether Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) can reduce stress arousal in patients suffering from fibromyalgia.
An earlier study by this principal investigator showed that MBSR reduced depressive symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia with gains maintained at two months follow-up (Sephton et al., Arthritis & Rheumatism, 57:77-85, 2007).
This second study explored the effects of MBSR on basal sympathetic (SNS) activation among women with fibromyalgia. Twenty-four participants were tested before and after MBSR for anxiety, depressive symptoms, and SNS activation.
The MBSR treatment significantly reduced basal electrodermal (skin conductance level; SCL) activity (t = 3.298, p = .005) and SCL activity during meditation (t = 4.389, p = .001), consistent with reduced SNS activation.
The authors conclude that in this small sample and uncontrolled test design, basal sympathetic nervous system activity was reduced following MBSR treatment. Future studies are needed.
Citation: Lush E, Salmon P, Floyd A, Studts JL, Weissbecker I, Sephton SE. Mindfulness meditation for symptom reduction in fibromyalgia: psychophysiological correlates. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings. 2009 Jun; 16 (2): pages 200-7. Epub 2009 Mar 10
Monte Hueftle
monte@runningpain.com |
| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| hundreth |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 16:20:26
Great read, here is another article written years ago that says the exact same thing; except it focuses on males.
quote:
June 16, 2004
Berlin, Germany - An investigation of fibromyalgia (FM) in former Israeli soldiers has revealed a link between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the development of the condition, but no association with major depression [ 1 ].
In the study, presented at the EULAR 2004 meeting last week, fibromyalgia was found in nearly half (49%) of the men with PTSD, compared with only 5% of those who suffered from depression, and none at all in a control group of healthy men (p<0.0001). "Normal average males have no tender spots on their bodies, so it was very unusual to find such a high number of men showing this level of pain," says lead investigator Dr Howard Amital (Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel).
The study was chosen by the scientific committee for inclusion in the official EULAR press pack. As fibromyalgia is commonly seen in women, it's unusual for a study of the condition to focus exclusively on males. The findings from this study, however, also overturn the common assumption that the psychiatric illnesses often seen alongside fibromyalgia result as a consequence of the chronic pain, the EULAR press release comments.
This study suggests that PTSD precipitates the emergence of fibromyalgia, Amital says. "It is not that psychiatric illness is necessarily correlated with fibromyalgia, but PTSD certainly is," he comments. "The symptoms may overlap, but the degree and intensity of these disorders are so closely related that it cannot be just a coincidence."
War veterans too deeply affected to benefit from rehabilitation
Amital et al conducted their study in 3 groups of men, all now in their 40s, who had served at some stage in the military forces. One group of 49 men acted as controls and were recruited on a scheduled routine annual physical examination at the Sheba Medical Center. Another group of 20 men had major depression, while the third group of 55 men had been diagnosed with PTSD. "The major traumatic event in all the PTSD patients was combat-related and sustained during wars fought by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)," the researchers explained. All of them were considered to be too deeply affected to benefit from rehabilitation and had been classified as "nonrehabilitative" by the Israeli defense ministry.
On average, the number of "tender points" among the PTSD patients was 8.9, compared with 2.85 in the group with depression and 0.18 in the normal controls (p<0.0001). A significant correlation was found between the FM tender-point score and measures of PTSD, sleep quality, and disability, the researchers noted. In comparison with the group of men who had major depression, the men with PTSD showed a significant impairment on both vocational and familial aspects of the Sheehan Disability Scale, they added, although both groups scored similarly on the Clinical Global Impression Scale.
In male patients, PTSD is highly associated with fibromyalgia, and the degree and impact of these disorders is significantly related, the researchers concluded. They also commented that the link between PTSD and fibromyalgia in male patients that they found in their study contrasts with the lack of any such link with major depression, despite the fact that the severity of both psychiatric ailments was similar.
Source
1. Amital H, Amital D, Fostick L, et al. Fibromyalgia in men and post-traumatic stress disorder. Presented at: EULAR 2004; Berlin, Germany; June 9-12, 2004. Abstract PO0029.
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