The Pain PT News

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…

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…

What a 20 year study tells us about Anger & bodily symptoms

Anger is a primary emotion in all humans. How couples handle it during conflict can influence which health issues we are prone to getting, according to a 20 year study from UC Berkley and Northwestern…

Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn Symptoms in the Body

One way to understand how the brain can create symptoms in the body is through fight, flight, freeze, fawn nervous system reactions. These stress or trauma reactions are real but they are protective in…

Somatization in those with chronic symptoms

Wanted to touch on somatization again here as it's something that is a focus point of the work I do with people with chronic somatic symptoms. According to this research paper, "more than one-third of…

Insecure Attachment From Childhood Linked to Somatic Symptoms

What is Somatization? Creating a sense of safety and security within ourselves is important for our brain and nervous system to settle and relax, which helps to reduce somatic symptoms in the body. Research…

Social pain and physical pain similar in the brain

A study at University of Michigan found that 'physical pain and intense feelings of social rejection “hurt” in the same way'. Social psychologist Ethan Kross states: "We found that powerfully inducing…

Catastrophizing an indendent risk factor for widespread chronic pain

A recent study this month February 2024 found 'Pain catastrophizing appears to be an independent risk factor for progression to chronic widespread pain among patients with chronic low back pain. These…