The possible onset of fibromyalgia following acute COVID-19 infection, 2023, Einat Savin et al

Mij · Feb 15, 2023

Abstract
Introduction
The exact pathogenesis of fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome is unclear. However, various infectious have been implicated with the development of FM after their acute phase. We aimed to investigate the incidence of FM syndrome among convalesced individuals following hospitalization for Acute Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19).

Methods
We performed a cross-sectional study on patients who were discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization from the Sheba Medical Center, Israel, between July 2020 to November 2020. A phone interview was performed consisting of the following questionnaires: the Fibromyalgia Survey Diagnostic Criteria Questionnaire, Sense of Coherence Questionnaire to evaluate resilience, and the Subjective Traumatic Outlook Questionnaire to assess the associated psychological aspects of the trauma. The incidence of post-COVID FM was calculated and regression models were performed to identify predictors.

Results
The study population consisted of 198 eligible patients who completed the phone interview. The median age was 64 (52–72) and 37% were women. The median follow-up was 5.2 months (IQR 4.4–5.8). The incidence of FM was 15% (30 patients) and 87% (172 patients) had at least one FM-related symptom. Female gender was significantly associated with post-COVID FM (OR 3.65, p = 0.002). In addition, high median Subjective Traumatic Outlook scores and low median Sense of Coherence scores were both significantly associated with post-COVID FM (OR 1.19, p<0.001 and OR 0.92, p<0.001, respectively).

Conclusions
FM is highly prevalent among COVID-19 convalescent patients. Our finding suggests that a significant subjective traumatic experience and a low resilience are highly associated with post-COVID FM.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0281593

Hutan · Feb 15, 2023

Sigh. And still the victim-blaming nonsense keeps coming.

Subjective Traumatic Outlook Questionnaire

1. Looking on your condition, do you feel that you suffer from psychological trauma?

2. Looking back, do you see a fracture line between your life before the event and after the event?

3. Do you feel that the event controls your life?

4. Parallel to your daily functioning, do you feel that there is a debilitated inner world that will never recuperate from the trauma?

5. Do you feel that since the traumatic event no one can understand what you are going through?

Scoring is 1: Not at all through to 5: Very much.

Items 2, 3 and 5 could easily be scored as 4 or 5 by someone objectively assessing very debilitating symptoms that are minimised by medical professionals.

Sense of Coherence Questionnaire
I haven't spent much time finding exactly what version of the questionnaire was used, but there's this commentary that includes some questions:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK435830/

Examples of items measuring the comprehensibility dimension are as follows

When you talk to people, do you have a feeling that they don’t understand you? (from ‘never have this feeling’ to ‘always have this feeling’)

Do you have a feeling that you are in an unfamiliar situation and don’t know what to do? (from ‘very often’ to ‘very seldom or never’)

The following items are examples that measure manageability:

When something unpleasant happened in the past your tendency was: (from ‘to eat yourself up about it’ to ‘to say “ok that’s that, I have to live with it” and go on’)

When you do something that gives you a good feeling: (from ‘it’s certain that you’ll go on feeling good’ to ‘it’s certain that something will happen to spoil the feeling’)

Meaningfulness is measured with items like these:

Doing the things you do every day is: (from ‘a source of deep pleasure and satisfaction’ to ‘a source of pain and boredom’)

When you think about your life, you very often: (from ‘feel how good it is to be alive’ to ‘ask yourself why you exist at all’)

Click to expand...

Again, it's likely that someone who has suddenly developed a life-limiting condition that includes ongoing pain and who is not getting any constructive help from their doctors is going to score poorly on this scale. It's not surprising, and should not be taken as evidence of the person's defective resilience having caused their condition.

Sean · Feb 15, 2023

"Our finding suggests..."

If there is one thing that characterises this 'method' it is how arbitrary the interpretation of the answers are, and how little attempt there is to actually determine which interpretation is correct. It is simply asserted, and is always pathological.

Trish · Feb 15, 2023

What gives them the right to ask such intrusive, judgemental and leading questions of people in physical pain. It's time we all rebelled and wrote on the questionnaires 'none of your damned business'.

shak8 · Feb 15, 2023

So I looked up the autoimmune disease department at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, where they authors are based.

And a familiar study came up in that search, on the first page. Remember the floral arranging and how it vastly improved FM symptoms?

Yup, Sheba FM "researchers" or someone with a brother growing flowers commercially, I would suspect.

https://www.shebaonline.org/fibromyalgia-and-floristry/

Sheba Medical Center does a big global international patient business, including "holistic" care.

And why is FM under the department of autoimmune diseases when it is not an autoimmune disease as currently defined? Probably $.

I am so thrilled to have this sh*t puddle of a diagnosis. Sticks to the behind of my albatross, whom I am fond of, after all.

shak8 · Feb 15, 2023

And having "one FM-related symptom" does not cut it.

ETA: Under Sheba Medical Center Rheumatology and Autoimmunity department's website heading: what they treat includes fibromyalgia.

Under Fibromyalgia, the head states merely: Fibromyalgia Clinic, and the one and only mention is CBT.

CBT, not even floral therapy!

Is PLOSone a reputable journal? Or was there compromat?

rvallee · Feb 16, 2023

The paper said: ↑

Our finding suggests that a significant subjective traumatic experience and a low resilience are highly associated with post-COVID FM
Click to expand...

Uh, no it doesn't. You do, clearly, but the finding doesn't suggest anything like that at all, it's actually remarkably foolish and far out the left field.

And wow those questions are just complete trash. What is wrong with these people? Medicine without empathy and science is just pure trash.

Mij · Feb 16, 2023

Back in the late 90s I received a call asking if I would like to participate in a survey regarding depression. I said yes. There were 2 questions:

1. Do you that believe depression is genetic and runs in families.

2. Do you believe depression affects the ability to perform daily activities.

I wondered what all that was about. Weird.

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The possible onset of fibromyalgia following acute COVID-19 infection, 2023, Einat Savin et al

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