1. Sign our petition calling on Cochrane to withdraw their review of Exercise Therapy for 'CFS'.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Guest, the 'News in Brief' for the week beginning 28th October 2024 is here.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Welcome! Read the Core Purpose and Values of our forum.
    Dismiss Notice

PHD Project: Stress reactivity in people suffering from chronic fatigue, 2019 - 2023

Discussion in 'Psychosomatic research - ME/CFS and Long Covid' started by Andy, Jan 28, 2022.

  1. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

    Messages:
    22,979
    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    Abstract

    During the course of this PhD, the student will examine the relationship between stressful experiences, stress reactivity and symptoms in people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), in comparison with matched non-fatigued control participants. The project will include a systematic review of stress reactivity in fatiguing conditions, a qualitative study of the impact of stress on symptoms in people with CFS and an experimental study using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to compare stress reactivity in CFS participants and controls. We will also consider the potential moderating role of support attempts by close significant others (e.g. spouses or partners) on the response to stress, using a partner support version of the TSST.

    https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2281613

     
    Andy, Jan 28, 2022
    #1
    Joh, Midnattsol, Sean and 2 others like this.
  2. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    55,250
    Location:
    UK
    I wondered what the Trier Social Stress Test might be and found this from 1993:

    https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/119004
    The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ – A Tool for Investigating Psychobiological Stress Responses in a Laboratory Setting
    Kirschbaum C. · Pirke K.-M. · Hellhammer D.H.

    Neuropsychobiology 1993;28:76–81
    https://doi.org/10.1159/000119004

    Abstract
    This paper describes a protocol for induction of moderate psychological stress in a laboratory setting and evaluates its effects on physiological responses. The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ (TSST) mainly consists of an anticipation period (10 min) and a test period (10 min) in which the subjects have to deliver a free speech and perform mental arithmetic in front of an audience. In six independent studies this protocol has been found to induce considerable changes in the concentration of ACTH, cortisol (serum and saliva), GH, prolactin as well as significant increases in heart rate. As for salivary cortisol levels, the TSST reliably led to 2- to 4-fold elevations above baseline with similar peak cortisol concentrations. Studies are summarized in which TSST-induced cortisol increases elucidated some of the multiple variables contributing to the interindividual variation in adrenocortical stress responses. The results suggest that gender, genetics and nicotine consumption can influence the individual’s stress responsiveness to psychological stress while personality traits showed no correlation with cortisol responses to TSST stimulation. From these data we conclude that the TSST can serve as a tool for psychobiological research.

    © 1993 S. Karger AG, Basel

    Edit:
    I couldn't find anything about the partner support version, but this one looks related:
    A friendly version of the trier social stress test does not activate the HPA axis in healthy men and women
     
    Trish, Jan 28, 2022
    #2
    Midnattsol, Peter Trewhitt and Andy like this.
  3. Milo

    Milo Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,138
    That’s not going to end well for this one either, is it?

    it sounds like a surgical dissection of stress, depression and anxiety as a constructed cause of ME/cfs.
     
    Milo, Jan 29, 2022
    #3
    chrisb, Sean and Midnattsol like this.
  4. chrisb

    chrisb Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    4,602
    It is beginning to look like deliberate provocation. All these studies seem to refer to "chronic fatigue" in the title and CFS in the body of the work. It is just about credible that people starting a PhD are unfamiliar with the significance - though it does not auger well if they are. One would expect supervisors to recognise the problems and correct them before damage is done. It immediately casts doubt on the selection criteria.
     
    chrisb, Jan 29, 2022
    #4
    Sean, Mithriel, EzzieD and 3 others like this.
  5. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    55,250
    Location:
    UK
    If they are wanting to find out whether ME/CFS is stress related, surely they need to have a control group who are equally disabled by chronic physical disease.

    On the other hand if they want to find out whether it is the symptom fatigue that is key to whatever their hypothesis is, they need to test people with a variety of fatiguing conditions.

    As someone who was a maths teacher, the idea of having to give a short speech to a few people and do some mental arithmetic would not have been particularly stressful when I was well or when I had mild ME. Now with more physically severe ME, It would be the whole situation of having to organise someone to take me to the test centre with wheelchair, and the physical effort required to sit or stand while speaking for 10 minutes etc would be far more stressful, whether done with family support or not.

    The whole project seems daft to me.
     
    Trish, Jan 29, 2022
    #5
    Snowdrop, cfsandmore, Sean and 9 others like this.
  6. NelliePledge

    NelliePledge Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    14,760
    Location:
    UK West Midlands
    Maybe they could have a shopping bag in their hand while giving the talk
     
    NelliePledge, Jan 29, 2022
    #6
    Joh, Sean, shak8 and 4 others like this.
  7. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    13,597
    Location:
    Canada
    I don't know, I could think of a better place for a shopping bag with a pair of holes at the right place.
     
    rvallee, Jan 29, 2022
    #7
    Sean, Amw66 and shak8 like this.
  8. CRG

    CRG Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,860
    Location:
    UK
    CRG, Jan 30, 2022
    #8
    Wyva, cfsandmore and Trish like this.
  9. Mithriel

    Mithriel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,816
    There is a place for looking at romantic and sexual aspects of ME but doing so from the point of view of the stress involved is a bit skewed. Have a close partner can cause stress but it also takes away stress. Being single because you are so sick is stressful but then it is less stressful than a partner who is disbelieving.

    Hopefully she will find some of the truth about the ways ME screws up our lives but we do not need a simple conclusion that stress causes CFS.

    And call it ME/CFS for goodness sake. How can you be up to date with the literature if you have never read the NICE guidelines about the disease you are studying!!!
     
    Mithriel, Jan 30, 2022
    #9
    EzzieD, shak8, Trish and 1 other person like this.
  10. CRG

    CRG Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,860
    Location:
    UK
    The Phd award started in 2019 so NICE 2021 wouldn't apply. Still raises the question about whether patients were involved in the study design (I'd bet on No !)

    I usually manage to be generous in my thinking to almost any area of study (yes even psych) but this one really irritates me. The way both the MRC brief and and the researcher talk about this gives (perhaps wholly unintentionally) the sense that patients are mere lab rats, whose curious and funny little behaviours are open to being probed and prodded for absolutely no benefit to the rats. Of course participants will go through the usual consent processes but I think we all know the soft sell that will come with recruitment.

    It is also a touch perverse to have a brief that says "We will also consider the potential moderating role of support attempts by close significant others (e.g. spouses or partners) on the response to stress ...." for a patient population for which studies that measure attached status consistently suggest only a minority patients are in 'romantic' relationships. This study by Nacul et al gives just 35 partners for 169 patients https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-020-09049-x/tables/2 !
     
    CRG, Jan 30, 2022
    #10
    Sean, Wyva, Mithriel and 1 other person like this.
  11. chrisb

    chrisb Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    4,602
    What will they do with the results? It increases possibilities for social prescribing. Prescribe everyone a partner, or perhaps provide a prescription for a divorce?
     
    chrisb, Jan 30, 2022
    #11
    ukxmrv, Wyva and Trish like this.
  12. Mithriel

    Mithriel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,816
    Personally I am hoping for a robot dog. All the cuddles, none of the chores
     
    Mithriel, Jan 30, 2022
    #12
    EzzieD, shak8 and CRG like this.
  13. NelliePledge

    NelliePledge Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    14,760
    Location:
    UK West Midlands
    I wonder if Keith Geraghty is aware of this he is linked to Manchester maybe he would be in a position to engage with this researcher on the reality of MECFS
     
    NelliePledge, Jan 30, 2022
    #13
    cfsandmore, EzzieD, Sean and 2 others like this.

Share This Page