Attentional processing and interpretative bias in functional neurological disorder, 2020, Moss-Morris, Chalder et al

Andy

Retired committee member
BPS crew in shock "ill people pay attention to their symptoms, while healthy people don't pay attention to symptoms they don't have" insight.
Objective
Altered attentional processing (automatically attending to negative or illness-relevant information) and interpretative biases (interpreting ambiguous information as negative or illness-relevant) may be mechanistically involved in functional neurological disorder (FND). Common mechanisms between FND and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have been proposed but not compared experimentally.

Methods
We compared cognitive task performance of FND, CFS and healthy control (HC) groups. Tasks assessed attentional bias towards illness-relevant stimuli (visual probe task), attentional control (attention network task) and somatic interpretations (interpretative bias task), alongside self-reported depression, anxiety, fatigue and general health.

Results
Thirty-seven participants diagnosed with FND, 52 participants diagnosed with CFS and 51 HC participants were included. Whilst participants with CFS showed attentional bias for illness-relevant stimuli relative to HC (t = -3.13 p = 0.002, d = 0.624), individuals with FND did not (t = -1.59, p = 0.118, d = 0.379). Both FND (t = 3.08, p = 0.003, d = 0.759) and CFS (t = 2.74, p = 0.007, d = 0.548) groups displayed worse attentional control than HC. Similarly, FND (t = 3.63, p < 0.001, d = 0.801) and CFS groups (t = 4.58, p < 0.001, d = 0.909) showed more somatic interpretative bias than HC.

Conclusions
Similar attentional control deficits and somatic interpretative bias in individuals with FND and CFS support potential shared mechanisms underlying symptoms. Interpretative bias towards somatic and illness-relevant stimuli in functional disorders may prove a therapeutic target.
Paywall, https://journals.lww.com/psychosoma...cessing_and_interpretative_bias_in.98525.aspx
Sci hub, not available at time of posting

@dave30th , one for you I reckon.
 
Oh ***, when will this ******* nightmare end.

I was just going to add a comment to @dave30th's excellent article linking the awful research that the unethical ******* idiots, Chalder and Moss-Morris, have spent the last 30 years inflicting on us, and now they come up with this ****

I feel like we're drowning.
 
If someone has a medically poorly understood condition aren’t they going to focus on symptoms to try to understand more about their condition.

If my roof has a intermittent leak that the builder can not explain I am going to focus on my roof until I work out what is wrong with it so I can get it properly repaired. Personally I would regard that as a sensible course of action, not ‘attentional control deficit’ or ‘somatic interpretative bias’. Do these BPS proponents seek out CBT if they have one of those annoying intermittent faults in their car that never shows up when they take it to the garage?
 
They should have had a control group with a demonstrable disease such as type 1 diabetes or cancer. I know that in type 1 diabetes you are automatically aware of your bodily sensations so you get an early warning of hypo or hyperglycaemia. Idiotic research where lack of the proper controls make it all worthless.

Oh ***, when will this ******* nightmare end.

I was just going to add a comment to @dave30th's excellent article linking the awful research that the unethical ******* idiots, Chalder and Moss-Morris, have spent the last 30 years inflicting on us, and now they come up with this ****

I feel like we're drowning.

When I read the latest trial by error report I felt crushed by the sheer relentlessness of it all. It made me wonder how dave30th could carry on doing this, but I am so glad he does.

Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings talks about "fighting the long defeat" and that's how I feel. They have the money and the energy to talk over us all the time.
 
This argument is right in line with only minorities think about racism, or poor people think too much about being poor and that's why they're poor.

Why would someone who is not sick think about symptoms? That makes no sense. Literally the only possible explanation is that the symptoms are real. Anything else is absurd.

This argument is a logical fallacy, sophistry-based medicine.
Interpretative bias towards somatic and illness-relevant stimuli in functional disorders may prove a therapeutic target.
THAT'S LITERALLY THE BASIS OF THE DAMN BPS MODEL OF ME IT'S BEEN USED IN PRACTICE FOR DECADES while simultaneously admitting there is no basis for it other than "may prove". This is complete madness. They are both in total control of millions of lives while still trying to make up even a hint of evidence for anything.
 
When you find you can no longer rely on your body and your wits, it's a life-altering realisation. My trust in my body and mind was shattered, of course I have a bias focusing on the crazy shit my body was doing (or not doing).
 
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