Psychological resilience, affective mechanisms and symptom burden in a tertiary-care sample of patients with fibromyalgia

Samantha J. McAllister, Ann Vincent, Afton L. Hassett, Mary O. Whipple, Terry H. Oh, Roberto P. Benzo, Loren L. Toussaint

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research demonstrates that patients with fibromyalgia who have higher positive and lower negative affect have lower symptom burden. Affect has been shown to be associated with resilience. This study examined the relationship between affect, resilience and fibromyalgia symptom burden in a clinical sample of patients with fibromyalgia. We hypothesized that (a) positive and negative affect would be associated with fibromyalgia symptom burden; (b) resilience would be associated with positive and negative affect; (c) resilience would be associated with fibromyalgia symptom burden; and (d) the connection between resilience and fibromyalgia symptom burden would be mediated by both positive and negative affect. A sample of 858 patients with fibromyalgia completed questionnaires. Mediation modelling revealed statistically significant direct effects of resilience on fibromyalgia symptom burden (β = -0.10, P < 0.001) and statistically significant indirect effects of resilience on fibromyalgia symptom burden through affect (β = -0.36, P < 0.001), suggesting that both resilience and affect influence fibromyalgia symptom burden. Our results suggest that improving affect through resiliency training could be studied as a modality for improving fibromyalgia symptom burden.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)299-305
Number of pages7
JournalStress and Health
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords

  • affect
  • chronic pain
  • fibromyalgia
  • resilience

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