Alteration of Postural Balance in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Nunez-Fuentes at al, 2021

[Andy]

Balance problems are one of the most frequent symptoms in patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS). However, the extent and nature of this balance disorder are not known. The objective of this work was to determine the best evidence for the alteration of postural balance in patients with FMS and analyze differences with healthy controls. To meet this objective, a systematic review with meta-analysis was performed. A bibliographical search was carried out in PubMed Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL and SciELO. Observational studies that assessed postural balance in patients with FMS compared to healthy subjects in baseline conditions, were selected. In a random-effect model, the pooled effect was calculated with the Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) and its 95% confidence interval (CI). Nineteen studies reporting data of 2347 participants (95% female) were included. FMS patients showed poor balance with a large effect on static (SMD = 1.578; 95% CI = 1.164, 1.992), dynamic (SMD = 0.946; 95% CI = 0.598, 1.294), functional balance (SMD = 1.138; 95% CI = 0.689, 1.588) and on balance confidence (SMD = 1.194; 95% CI = 0.914, 1.473). Analysis of the Sensory Organization Test showed large alteration of vestibular (SMD = 1.631; 95% CI = 0.467, 2.795) and visual scores (SMD = 1.317; 95% CI = 0.153, 2.481) compared to healthy controls. Patients with FMS showed worse scores for different measures of postural balance compared to healthy controls. Concretely, FMS patients appear to have poor vestibular and visual scores with a possible somatosensory dependence.

Open access, https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/1/127/htm

 

[rvallee]

a possible somatosensory dependence

A what in the what now?

No discussion of orthostatic intolerance? The hardest part of science is asking the right questions. This ain't it.

I don't know who needs to hear this but continuing to do very low quality and scope poorly-observational research on large problems is entirely pointless. No one was ever going to orbit on leg power alone, no matter how smartly designed your super-bicycle is. At some point you have to increase the scale of efforts and that point was decades ago.

 

[Forbin]

somatosensory dependence

Apparently, "somatosensory dependence" is a term for a shift away from primarily using visual information to maintain balance and towards using bodily positional information instead. It sounds like it might occur in vestibular dysfunction, because the eye muscles depend heavily on info from the vestibular apparatus in order to orient the eyes. Prolonged spinning in place, for instance, will disrupt the fluid in the inner ear and will cause your eyes to dart back and forth, briefly making them worse than useless for maintaining your balance.

I'm not really all that familiar with fibromyalgia, so I'm somewhat surprised to hear that balance problems are a fairly common component of it.

 

[Mij]

I dunno. My balance is worse when I'm in a flare (more fatigue) of some sort.

 

[shak8]

Apparently, "somatosensory dependence" is a term for a shift away from primarily using visual information to maintain balance and towards using bodily positional information instead. It sounds like it might occur in vestibular dysfunction, because the eye muscles depend heavily on info from the vestibular apparatus in order to orient the eyes. Prolonged spinning in place, for instance, will disrupt the fluid in the inner ear and will cause your eyes to dart back and forth, briefly making them worse than useless for maintaining your balance.

I'm not really all that familiar with fibromyalgia, so I'm somewhat surprised to hear that balance problems are a fairly common component of it.

It's not the first thing that comes to mind as a symptom of fibro, indeed, it's not even in the top 10.