Do Psychological Factors Influence the Elastic Properties of Soft Tissue in Subjects with Fibromyalgia? 2022 Navarro-Ledesma et al

Abstract

Nowadays, there is evidence related to the impact that psychological factors have on symptoms, specifically vegetative ones, and on the autonomic nervous system in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). However, there are no studies to correlate the level of association between psychological factors and the elastic properties of tissue in the FM population. Elastic properties of soft tissue reflect age- and disease-related changes in the mechanical functions of soft tissue, and mechanical failure has a profound impact on morbidity and mortality.

The study has a cross-sectional observational design with 42 participants recruited from a private clinic and rehabilitation service. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale and Self-Efficacy Scale were used to assess psychological factors. The elastic properties of the tissue in the characteristic painful points, which patients suffering from FM described, were assessed by strain elastography.

A low and significant level of association was found between pain catastrophising scale (PCS) and the non-dominant lateral epicondyle (r = −0.318; p = 0.045). Kinesiophobia was found to be related to the dominant lateral epicondyle (r = 0.403; p = 0.010), the non-dominant knee (r = −0.34; p = 0.027) and the dominant forearm (r = 0.360; p = 0.010). Self-Efficacy showed a low level of association with the non-dominant supraspinatus (r = −0.338; p = 0.033) and the non-dominant medial epicondyle (r = −0.326; p = 0.040).

Psychological factors and the elastic properties of tissue seem to be associated in patients suffering from FM. The most profound association between psychological factors and non-dominant parts of the body could be related to neglect and non-use of those parts of the body.

Open access, https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/12/3077

 

The lived minute to minute experience of fibro pain when severe is this:

you cannot stretch affected muscles, they just don't. You are not catastrophizing (=exaggerating) the pain. The pain is pervasive, persistent, huge.

Thor has you in the grip of his huge hands and is squeezing your muscles into a tight knot and leaving you like that for hours, days. Heat is the only modality that works. Not exercise. Not stretching per se. (You are incapable of stretching because your muscles behave as though they are in spasm.)

Wide swaths of the body are affected, for instance, the entire dorsal upper body (back, neck, shoulders, arms). At its worst the only unaffected parts of the body are the abdomen and pelvis

Univ of Granada, Spain, has a sports medicine department and physical therapy department that do research frequently about FM. The utility or relevance of its research remains a question.

 

Do Psychological Factors Influence the Mass of Stars in Andromeda? 2022 Sun-Large et al

 

Do Psychological Factors Influence the Elastic Properties of Soft Tissue in Subjects with Fibromyalgia?.......................No.

How about these researchers recreate the psychological factors in themselves and show the change in the elastic properties of soft tissue in their own bodies.

 

Profound?! How? If someone is a couch potato then it will not be amazing to find parts of their body to be below par, compared to those same body parts in an athlete. How is that profound? Or is it simply that common sense seems profound to those who lack it?

 

I genuinely don't think these people understand what association means. Because they are using it explicitly as if it means not just causative, but causative in the way they want it to be, despite being a direction that requires an absurd amount of assumptions and suspension of disbelief. The alternative explanation is that they simply don't care, and that's every bit as incompetent.

Seriously, medicine has already long surpassed the homeopathic A&E sketch in terms of ridiculous. And somehow we are the anti-science activists? How can you even satirize this?

This features very highly in the "when all you have is a hammer":

"So, tell me sir, when have you stopped beating your wife? I have no further questions." This "assesses" psychological factors in the same way as Meyers-Briggs assesses anything.