Role of stressors in adult fibromyalgia – a response to Kaleycheva et al.

The impact of COVID-19 stress on pain and fatigue in people with and without a central sensitivity syndrome

“…A 10-day online survey, of people with fibromyalgia during the pandemic, found such an association between intra-individual levels of anxiety and chronic pain [35]. Such concurrent inter-individual and intra-individual associations may reflect mutual influences on a negative affect dimension instead of a specific somatic symptom reaction to stress (e.g., [36]). Guided by the hypothesis that a sensitized brain may augment somatic symptoms in response to stress in people with CSS [6][7][8][9], we expected a stronger correlation between COVID-stress and somatic symptoms in people with CSS, compared to people without CSS.…”

The role of lifetime stressors in adult fibromyalgia: a response to Joan S. Crawford's letter to the editor

“…We would like to thank Dr Crawford for their interest in our paper. In their letter to the editor (Crawford, 2021), Dr Crawford suggests that the extent of the relationship between lifetime stressors and the development of fibromyalgia in adulthood, proposed by our systematic review and meta-analysis (Kaleycheva, Cullen, Evans, Harris, Nicholson, Chalder, 2021), could have been better accounted for by methodological issues in the study. We respectfully disagree and would like to address Dr Crawford's main concerns.…”