Comparing autonomic nervous system function in pw/functional somatic syndromes, stress-related syndromes and healthy controls 2025 Van Den Houte+

[Andy]

Highlights

• Autonomic nervous system function in functional and stress-related syndromes.
• Sympathetic predominance at rest was evident in both patient groups.
• Reduced cardiac responses to psychosocial stress in both patient groups vs controls.
• Autonomic nervous system dysfunction is a transdiagnostic feature.

Abstract

Background
The goal of this study was to examine autonomic nervous system function by measuring heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance levels (SCL), and peripheral skin temperature (ST) in response to and during recovery from psychosocial stressors in patients with functional somatic syndromes (FSS; fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue syndrome), stress-related syndromes (SRS; overstrain or burn-out), and healthy controls (HC).

Methods
Patients with FSS (n = 26), patients with SRS (n = 59), and HC (n = 30) went through a standardized psychosocial stress test consisting of a resting phase (120 s), the STROOP color word task (120 s), a mental arithmetic task (120 s) and a stress talk (120 s), each followed by a 120 s recovery period. HR, HRV, SCL, and ST were monitored continuously.

Results
Average HR and SCL were higher, and HRV was lower, in both patient groups compared to HC during rest (0.50 < Cohen's d < 0.97). A larger SC response to psychosocial stress was found in FSS compared to HC (d = 0.71). However, HR increased less during psychosocial stress and showed a smaller reduction during recovery in both patient groups compared to HC (0.68 < d < 0.98). HRV was lower in both patient groups compared to HC during recovery (0.91 < d < 0.98). There were no differences in ST levels or responses between groups.

Conclusions
Our results indicate a dominance of the sympathetic nervous system in both patient groups compared to controls, suggesting that autonomic nervous system dysfunction is a transdiagnostic feature for stress-related and functional somatic syndromes.

Paywall, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399924004379

 

[rvallee]

This seems very redundant in a "drugs and alcohol" way coming from them. It's a completely arbitrary to decide those fake groups.

Decades of junk research and it literally amounts to nothing. All the money wasted on this would have been just as productive being wasted in a casino.

They kind of seem to be describing autonomic dysfunction / dysautonomia, using different words with a different intent making it all about generic 'stress', whatever is meant by that. That it's common during and following infectious diseases, also during pregnancy, doesn't seem to bother them. Everything is stress, the universal cause and solution to every problem they don't understand.

'Overstrain' seems to be mostly a made-up concept here. Extremely generic:

Overstrain can be seen as a precursor for burnout and is characterized by symptoms of disturbed or restless sleep, irritability, emotional lability, not being able to relax, and cognitive problems persisting for more than 3 months

Basically all things they don't understand but lump together because there are no standards in this discipline and failure is the only thing they are able to produce.

 

[Yann04]

To be fair a lot of people with FSS are initially misdiagnosed with stress related syndromes (like burnout), so it’s no surprise the groups are similar.

(Not that FSS is a useful diagnosis either).