MAY 2, 2024
Findings from a recent study suggest patients with fibromyalgia are more likely to exhibit signs of attention-deficit disorder than those without the painful disorder.
“Our results suggest that fibromyalgia may be associated to a reduced processing speed, along to reduced neural resources to process stimuli, mainly in distinguishing relevant (rare) and irrelevant (frequent) stimuli according to the goals of the task,” the study investigators reported. “Altogether, our results
Findings from a recent study suggest patients with fibromyalgia are more likely to exhibit signs of attention-deficit disorder than those without the painful disorder.
“Our results suggest that fibromyalgia may be associated to a reduced processing speed, along to reduced neural resources to process stimuli, mainly in distinguishing relevant (rare) and irrelevant (frequent) stimuli according to the goals of the task,” the study investigators reported. “Altogether, our results seem to support the hypothesis of generalized attentional deficits in fibromyalgia.”
An all-female cohort was included in the study (BMC Psychol 2024;12[1]:104). Patients were divided into two groups: 15 with a history of fibromyalgia (median age, 51 years) and a control group of 15 without fibromyalgia (median age, 46 years). In both groups, participants preformed an Oddball Dual Task and an Emotional Stroop Task during electroencephalogram recordings.
During the Emotional Stroop Task, used to investigate the effect of pain-related words as distractors, patients with fibromyalgia had less hits and longer time reactions compared with the control group.
The Oddball Dual Task was used to elicit indicators of attentional processing: the N100 and P300. N100 is a negative evoked potential appearing 100 milliseconds after the onset of a stimulus and has been related to the allocation of automatic attentional resources toward attended emotional stimuli. The P300 is a positive component of the task that occurs 300 milliseconds after a stimulus. Patients with fibromyalgia had lower P300 amplitudes than control participants, indicating attention deficit. Differences between groups in the N100 were found to be only marginally significant, the investigators noted.
“People with fibromyalgia require greater cognitive effort to perform the tasks, which coincides with what was reported by the patients,” the investigators concluded. However, they added, the general alteration of information processing in patients with fibromyalgia is compensated with automatic attentional resources in simple tasks.
—Myles Starr
