The role of insecure attachment & alexithymia in somatic symptoms
This was a nice study showing how having an insecure attachment to a parental figure from childhood becomes a risk factor to having medically unexplained somatic symptoms (MUSS) later in adulthood. The…
Is Muscuoloskeletal Pain or Arthritis Related to Changes in Weather?
Many people believe the weather has an impact on their pain or arthritis symptoms. This was a great review study looking at exactly that. Titled "Come rain or shine: Is weather a risk factor for musculoskeletal…
How many ACE’s (adverse childhood experiences) are associated with chronic disease?
There have been many studies linking the role of ACE's to chronic disease later in life. I wanted to share a 2023 study here that looked to identify a cut-point for the number of ACE's that would have…
Study: Lack of identifying emotions and its role in chronic pain
One of the areas in chronic pain that's not as talked about is the role of identifying emotions and how the lack of knowing what you are feeling emotionally may emerge physically as somatic symptoms. Difficulty…
Anxiety associated with autoimmune diseases
This 2023 review study found an association between anxiety and autoimmune disorders. In fact what the meta-analysis found was that individuals experiencing anxiety were 1.28 times more likely to develop…
Mind Over Matter: How Your Perceptions Shape Your Health
Mind over matter? I found these two studies linked here very interesting as they show the power of the mind alone in affecting our health. I will talk about these in a moment. First I find it fascinating…
Thoughts, Emotions, Behaviors
When I think of the brain's role in somatic symptoms, I think of three main outputs the brain can produce that will affect symptoms: 1) thoughts 2) emotions, and 3) behaviors. The brain is continually…
Emotion Regulation Strategies & the Pain Experience
I want to review this new study that came out recently (May 2024) in the Clinical Journal of Pain. The results showed how we deal with emotions in real time can have an immediate effect on our pain experience.…
Are People with Chronic Pain Overthinking the Meaning of Their Pain?
Let's look at a new 2024 research paper that reviewed and looked at the neuroscience data on the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in chronic pain. The authors "suggest an updated model…
Chronic Pain Rewires Circuits in the Cortical Brain
Here'a a 2017 study from New York University that found "that chronic pain rewires circuits in a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to increase “aversion,” the amount of attention…
