title: Diminished Interoceptive Awareness in Fibromyalgia Syndrome.
abstract: Sensitivity to signals arising within the body (interoceptive awareness) has been implicated in emotion processing; interindividual differences in interoceptive awareness modulate both subjective and physiological indicators of emotional experience and the regulation of emotion-related behaviors. This study investigated interoceptive awareness in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), a chronic pain condition accompanied by various affective symptoms. Interoceptive awareness was assessed in 45 FMS patients and 31 healthy individuals using a heartbeat perception task. Cognitive performance, comorbid psychiatric disorders and medication use were assessed as possible confounding variables. Concerning the primary outcome, patients exhibited markedly reduced heartbeat perception compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, there was an inverse relationship between interoceptive awareness and FMS symptom severity. Reduced interoceptive awareness may be involved in the affective aspects of FMS pathology. Poor access to bodily signals may restrict patients´ ability to integrate these signals during emotional processing, which, by extension, may preclude optimal emotional self-regulation.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Psychology , UMIT - University for Health Sciences Medical Informatics and Technology , Hall in Tirol , Austria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duschek
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Jaén , Spain.
authors.forename: Casandra I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Montoro
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Jaén , Spain.
authors.forename: Gustavo A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Reyes Del Paso
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D065812:Interoception / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: chronic pain; emotion; fibromyalgia; heartbeat perception; interoceptive awareness