Behavioral and Representational Components of “Hyperactivity” in Fibromyalgia Syndrome Patients

Determinants of representational and behavioral hyperactivity in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome

“…Our results provide more information on the variables associated with representational hyperactivity than on the variables related to behavioral hyperactivity. These results further emphasize a prior finding (Grisart et al, 2010) relative to the importance of distinguishing between the two forms of hyperactivity. The contrasting results for the predictors of representational and behavioral hyperactivity can be explained in different ways.…”

“…A second limitation is the use of retrospective measures of hyperactivity. It is worth noting that previous research has not found any difference between the retrospective evaluation of premorbid active lifestyle among fibromyalgia patients and the hetero-evaluation involving significant others (Grisart et al, 2010). This result supports the validity of retrospective measures from the Habitual Action-Proneness Questionnaire.…”

“…Created in Dutch on the basis of 316 factory workers, its original version proved to be sufficiently reliable (Cronbach’s α = .78) (Dirken, 1970). Typical items from this scale include the following: “I have always been an active and busy person”; “I do not like to postpone things”; “Life is too short for me to get everything done.” A French translation (Grisart et al, 2010) was used. The scale contains 50 self-descriptive items to which the participants in the previous versions answered on a dichotomous scale their agreement (“right”) or disagreement (“wrong”).…”

“…Participants were asked to visualize the place where they lived and with whom they lived at that time, their job, activities, sports and hobbies, and so on. The internal consistency for this adapted version in French was high (Cronbach’s α > .80) (Grisart et al, 2010).…”

“…Hyperactivity seems to implicitly refer to an excessive level of activity, with potential deleterious consequences on a healthy condition (precipitating illness onset) or on a painful condition (increasing pain intensity, fatigue, bodily damage, etc.). An attempt to clarify the nature of hyperactivity (Grisart et al, 2010) showed that hyperactivity could be considered as a dual concept. The first component is the representation of hyperactivity, referring to the cognitive and/or attitudinal aspects (one’s own attitude toward activities).…”