An example of how the brain can produce severe physical symptoms
I wanted to share (via permission) from a patient of mine an example of how the brain can quickly produce severe physical symptoms with absolutely zero injury or physical cause. And also how these same…
2 personality traits associated with chronic pain from 120 years of research
Research has identified a pain personality that is common amongst people suffering from chronic pain. Dr. Sarno, who many of you know, also identified common personality traits that he saw in his patients…
How Your Attention Impacts the Placebo & Nocebo Effect
Placebo and nocebo are real physiological effects generated by our brains. They have the power to turn symptoms on, up, or down. Past research has found our expectations (positive and negative) are the…
Study: Work Psychological Factors Increase Risk for Back Pain
In the early 2000's, I started to think more deeply about chronic pain and other chronic symptoms that were not getting better through traditional physical therapy (physiotherapy). I was working in an…
Avoiding behaviors because of symptoms generalizes to other behaviors
I wanted to highlight how fear of movement because of a symptom (like pain) can generalize to other safe movements from the learning mechanisms in the brain. This is called avoidance generalization. This…
Trauma increases the risk of somatic symptoms by 2.7 times
This was a nice review paper looking at how psychological trauma affects functional somatic symptoms (FSS) in the body. Functional means no specific identifiable medical cause is found in the body. What…
Study: “Beliefs about the unacceptability of emotions and emotional suppression relate to worse outcomes in fibromyalgia”
This 2017 study looked at the relationship between beliefs about emotions, emotional suppression, and the global impact it has on fibromyalgia patients. Fibromyalgia is one of the conditions that has its…
Study: “The interaction between stress and chronic pain through the lens of threat learning.”
Chronic pain or chronic somatic symptoms are not the same as acute pain or acute somatic symptoms. Chronic symptoms are typically maladaptive and don't represent a true threat in the body (like an acute…
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…
