Bad news, fibromites! There's a new study out of Turkey that links Fibro with a whole bunch of negative personality traits. We ain't never gonna get no respect in the press ever again. It's unbelievable in that the study actually got funding from somewhere, but the results are even worse. Yeah, some Fibro patients could benefit from psychotherapy and certain drugs. So could a large percentage of the "normal" population.
They found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly higher harm avoidance (HA) and self-transcendence (ST) scores, and lower self-directedness (SD) scores than the healthy controls. Of course, the study only had 42 female patients in it, so how useful could any results possibly be? How broadly could they apply?
They wrote, “Individuals with high HA scores tend to be cautious, careful, fearful, tense, nervous, doubtful, passive, negativistic, insecure, or pessimistic, even in situations that do not worry other people. They also feel very tired because of their low energy level.”
“Individuals with low SD scores correlated with low self-esteem, lack of long-term goals, and difficulties in accepting responsibility,” they continued. “Higher ST scores have also been found to be related with a higher level of posttraumatic stress.”
Then they back off by noting how painful FMS is, wondering whether their results are related to the experience of living with FM, and taking care to note that they have no idea if the patients had these personality problems prior to becoming ill. Thanks guys, but no thanks. You just added to the public relations nightmare of coping with chronic illness and chronic pain. Maybe you should go back to the drawing board and do some research that might actually be helpful to patients.
They found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly higher harm avoidance (HA) and self-transcendence (ST) scores, and lower self-directedness (SD) scores than the healthy controls. Of course, the study only had 42 female patients in it, so how useful could any results possibly be? How broadly could they apply?
They wrote, “Individuals with high HA scores tend to be cautious, careful, fearful, tense, nervous, doubtful, passive, negativistic, insecure, or pessimistic, even in situations that do not worry other people. They also feel very tired because of their low energy level.”
“Individuals with low SD scores correlated with low self-esteem, lack of long-term goals, and difficulties in accepting responsibility,” they continued. “Higher ST scores have also been found to be related with a higher level of posttraumatic stress.”
Then they back off by noting how painful FMS is, wondering whether their results are related to the experience of living with FM, and taking care to note that they have no idea if the patients had these personality problems prior to becoming ill. Thanks guys, but no thanks. You just added to the public relations nightmare of coping with chronic illness and chronic pain. Maybe you should go back to the drawing board and do some research that might actually be helpful to patients.
Comment