Continuous pain report demonstrates time delay of pain ratings in Fibromyalgia, Kharko et al, 2021

[Sly Saint]

preprint

Abstract
Background: Enhanced temporal summation (TS), measured through self-reported pain ratings, has been interpreted as indicative of central sensitisation in fibromyalgia. Greater TS in patients, however, has not been universally observed. It is also unclear whether increased pain report maintains beyond the TS period.

Methods:
In this study, we measured TS through continuously reported pain ratings. Fibromyalgia-diagnosed patients (n = 17) and matched pain-free controls (n = 13) rated painful transcutaneous electrical stimulation of various intensity levels in 18 one-minute-long blocks. Pain was rated on a 101-point visual analogue scale. The resulting continuous response was divided into TS (< 15s) and adaptation (15 - 60s) periods. Average pain values were extracted for each period alongside the timing of key events such as maximal pain ratings. The difference in temporal summation and adaptation measures between fibromyalgia and control participants was analysed using mixed-effects modelling.

Results:
The average pain ratings for TS and adaptation periods were not significantly associated with fibromyalgia diagnosis but were with stimulation intensity. The same was true for the magnitude of the maximal rating during TS and the slope leading to that peak rating. The presence of fibromyalgia, however, did predict the time of the maximal TS rating, as well as the value and the time of the maximal adaptation rating.

Conclusions:
Our study did not find homogeneously increased TS pain ratings. Instead, by utilising continuous pain data we demonstrate for the first time that the time of TS peak rating, as well as the magnitude and time of adaptation peak rating are linked to fibromyalgia diagnosis.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.28.20248780v1

 

[rvallee]

The idea behind CSS is so weird. People experiencing migraines, a bout of the flu and many other types of illness have increased pain sensitivity. This doesn't tell us anything about anything, it's just describing the outcome instead of trying to understand the process. Lazy.

 

[Arnie Pye]

I just read the first paragraph in the wiki article on "Sensitization".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitization

Sensitization is a non-associative learning process in which repeated administration of a stimulus results in the progressive amplification of a response.[1] Sensitization often is characterized by an enhancement of response to a whole class of stimuli in addition to the one that is repeated. For example, repetition of a painful stimulus may make one more responsive to a loud noise.

The first thing that came into my mind after reading this is that torture often involves repeated administration of a painful stimulus e.g. whipping someone on the back. I just wondered how the authors of this kind of article [in post #1] would fit torture into their theories.

For example, if I was a sadist who had just whipped someone on the back, and then 15 minutes later I came and stroked their back in the same place as the whipping had been they would feel it much more than would be the case if the back of a matched un-whipped control had been stroked. The person who hadn't been tortured might even like it, you never know.

I've come up with this extreme example to point out the stupidity of the paper in post #1. Just because people who are already in pain react more quickly and with more pain to another stimulus teaches people absolutely nothing.

I know that BPS dogma includes fibromyalgia in amongst the MUS group of sick people. Suffering from an MUS is considered to be a mental illness thanks to BPS. In my opinion it is the BPSers who are mentally ill sadists.

I have never been diagnosed with fibromyalgia nor do I think I have it. But I am very, very suspicious of the motives of anyone who would write a paper like the one in post #1 about people with MUS of any kind.