Abstract
Background
Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain and often accompanied by cognitive and emotional problems. Adaptation to fibromyalgia may therefore also rely on one’s ability to regulate emotional problems. In this study, we examined two indices of emotion regulation, i.e., (1) affective instability, involving frequent large fluctuations in self‐reported affect, and (2) resting heart rate variability (HRV).
Methods
Participants were 46 patients with fibromyalgia (M age = 45.4 years; 39 females) and 46 matched healthy controls (M age = 44.9 years; 37 females). Heart rate was monitored under resting conditions to derive HRV. Subsequently, participants completed an electronic end‐of‐day diary for 14 consecutive days assessing daily levels of pain, disability, negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA). Affective instability was operationalized as the mean square of successive differences in daily mood.
Results
Results indicate increased levels of NA instability and reduced levels of HRV in patients with fibromyalgia in comparison with healthy controls. Furthermore, HRV and NA instability were inversely related. Finally, in patients, higher NA instability was related to increased pain disability.
Conclusions
Current findings support the idea that patients with fibromyalgia are confronted with fluctuating emotions. These results may have important implications for treatment as they provide support for the use of emotion regulation skills training in patients with fibromyalgia to impact upon NA instability.
from Wiley: European Journal of Pain: Table of Contents https://ift.tt/2Jo0yjS
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