Cited by 126Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ResearchPsychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsCancer-related cognitive impairment studies

Cognitive Impairments in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Associations With Positive and Negative Affect, Alexithymia, Pain Catastrophizing and Self-Esteem

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Galvez-Sánchez, Carmen M., Reyes del Paso, Gustavo A., Duschek, Stefan·2018·Frontiers in Psychology

Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and fatigue. In addition, affected patients frequently report cognitive disruption such as forgetfulness, concentration difficulties or mental slowness. Though cognitive deficits in FMS have been confirmed in various studies, not much is known about the mechanisms involved in their origin. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of affect-related variables to cognitive impairments in FMS. For this purpose, 67 female FMS patients and 32 healthy control subjects completed a battery of cognitive tests measuring processing speed, attention, visuospatial and verbal memory, cognitive flexibility and planning abilities. In addition, participants completed self-report questionnaires pertaining to positive and negative affect, alexithymia, pain catastrophizing and self-esteem. Clinical characteristics including pain severity, symptoms of depression and anxiety, insomnia and fatigue were also assessed. FMS patients showed markedly poorer performance than healthy controls in all of the cognitive domains assessed, in addition to greater levels of depression, anxiety, negative affect, alexithymia and pain catastrophizing, and lower self-esteem and positive affect. In exploratory correlation analysis in the FMS sample, lower cognitive performance was associated with higher pain severity, depression, anxiety, negative affect, alexithymia and pain catastrophizing, as well as lower self-esteem and positive affect. However, in regression analyses, pain, self-esteem, alexithymia, and pain catastrophizing explained the largest portion of the variance in performance. While interference effects of clinical pain in cognition have been previously described, the present findings suggest that affective factors also substantially contribute to the genesis of cognitive impairments. They support the notion that affective disturbances form a crucial aspect of FMS pathology, whereas strategies aiming to improve emotional regulation may be a beneficial element of psychological therapy in the management of FMS.

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  • Accepting negative emotional and affective states helps patients to cope more effectively with their functional status and disability.

    “Therefore, accepting negative emotional and affective states helps patients to cope more effectively with their functional status and disability (31, 52).”

    From Identifying mindfulness and acceptance as mediators between negative affect, functional disability and emotional distress in patients with fibromyalgia (2021) · cites this paper as [31]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) suggests that techniques addressing affect-related variables may improve coping with everyday stress. It does not specifically say that accepting negative emotional states helps patients cope with their functional status or disability, and its proposed benefit is more tentative than the citing sentence suggests. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Authors
Galvez-Sánchez, C. M., Reyes del Paso, G. A., & Duschek, S.
Affiliations
  • Universidad de Jaén (ES)
  • UMIT TIROL - Private University for Health Sciences and Health Technology (AT)
Corresponding author
Galvez-Sánchez, Carmen M.
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Published
2018-03-22
Volume
9
Pages
377-377
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2794379577
Cited by
126
References
11
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4
FWCI
8.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Hispana (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PSI2015-69235P)
  • Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FPU pre-doctoral contract (ref: FPU2014-02808))
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
Keywords
fibromyalgia, cognitive impairment, positive affect, negative affect, alexithymia, pain catastrophizing, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, pain intensity, emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, memory, attention, processing speed

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