The Vast Majority of Patients With Fibromyalgia Have a Straight Neck Observed on a Lateral View Radiograph of the Cervical Spine: An Aid in the Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and a Possible Clue to the Etiology.

Objective: A straight cervical spine is an underappreciated and often overlooked finding in fibromyalgia. The aim of this medical records review study was to evaluate the cervical curvature on radiographs of patients with fibromyalgia.

Methods: A consecutive series of 270 cervical spine radiographs of patients with neck pain from 2015 to 2018 were retrospectively analyzed for cervical curvature using the Cobb angle measurement.

Intramuscular Pressure Is Almost Three Times Higher in Fibromyalgia Patients: A Possible Mechanism for Understanding the Muscle Pain and Tenderness.

Objective: Widespread pain in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is conventionally viewed as arising from disordered central processing. This study examines intramuscular pressure in the trapezius as an alternative mechanism for understanding FMS pain.

Methods: One hundred eight patients who satisfied the American College of Rheumatology criteria for FMS and 30 patients who met the ACR criteria for another rheumatic disease comprised the study groups.

Cross-sectional neurocognitive data do not support a transition from fibrofog to Alzheimer disease in fibromyalgia patients.

Background: Cognitive dysfunction is a signature feature of fibromyalgia. Many who develop cognitive problems in their middle years are concerned that it is prodromal to Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To determine if deficits in episodic memory and progressive cognitive decline, hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, are prominent in the cognitive makeup of fibromyalgia patients.

Cognitive dysfunction in fibromyalgia: slow access to the mental lexicon.

Lexical access speed, the time needed for the brain to access the catalogue of words in long-term memory, is assumed to provide a foundation for a broad array of cognitive operations. It was hypothesized that deficits in lexical speed are likely to play a central role in deficiencies in cognitive performance of patients with fibromyalgia, who as a group show deficits in lexical speed. This was tested in a sample of 209 patients with fibromyalgia and in 72 control patients with memory deficits.

Development of the Mental Clutter Scale.

Mental fog is a core symptom of fibromyalgia. Its definition and measurement are central to an understanding of fibromyalgia-related cognitive disability. The Mental Clutter Scale was designed to measure mental fogginess.

Democracies restricting democratic rights: some classical sources and implications for ethics of biometrics.

Ancient Greek and 17th century English philosophy are not usually discussed along with the ethics of biometrics and data sharing. Academic ethics today, however, suffers from a lack of background in classical texts. We may discuss whether biometrics and data sharing are consistent with democracy, but if we do not know what democracy is, then we cannot know what actions are consistent with it.

Normalizing memory recall in fibromyalgia with rehearsal: a distraction-counteracting effect.

Objective: To examine the impact of distraction on the retention of rehearsed information in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

Methods: Data refer to the neurocognitive examination of 134 patients (91 with FMS and 43 control subjects) presenting with memory loss. Four neurocognitive measures free of distraction, along with 2 measures with added distraction, were completed.

Speed of mental operations in fibromyalgia: a selective naming speed deficit.

Objective: Abnormal processing of information in fibromyalgia may hold clues to brain abnormalities in this illness. The purpose of this study is to examine the speed of mental operations in people with the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) under the pressure of time. The central question addresses whether FMS is associated with processing speed deficits across a spectrum of speeded tasks.

The prevalence and clinical impact of reported cognitive difficulties (fibrofog) in patients with rheumatic disease with and without fibromyalgia.

Cognitive dysfunction in patients with rheumatic disease encompasses a range of impairment. Their prevalence, co-occurrence, and impact on symptom severity were assessed in 57 patients with fibromyalgia (FMS) and 57 patients with rheumatic disease without FMS. Information pertaining to memory decline, mental confusion, and speech difficulty was extracted from questions embedded in a health questionnaire and a blind retrospective chart review.

Cognitive and dissociative manifestations in fibromyalgia.

Memory decline and mental confusion frequently complicate the clinical presentation of fibromyalgia; however, formal cognitive examination often does not support deterioration. This paradox was examined in the context of dissociation, a condition with many cognitive similarities. Dissociation refers to the separation of parts of experience from the mainstream of consciousness.

Distraction as a key determinant of impaired memory in patients with fibromyalgia.

Objective: Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) frequently complain of poor memory, severe enough to affect job performance and to lead to disability. Yet common practices in neurocognitive examinations often fail to document cognitive abnormalities that match the severity of their memory complaints. Often, neuropsychologists gauge memory competence with measures free of distraction and produce high rates of normality on neurocognitive examination.

Informal medicine: ethical analysis.

Context: Doctors have been known to treat or give consultation to patients informally, with none of the usual record keeping or follow up. They may wish to know whether this practice is ethical.

Objective: To determine whether this practice meets criteria of medical ethics.

MMPI profile characteristics of women with varying levels of normal dissociation.

MMPI-2 correlates of normal dissociation as measured by the absorption subscale items of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) were examined in patients with diagnoses in the dissociative spectrum (n = 119) and not in the dissociative spectrum (n = 97). All patients completed the MMPI-2 and DES and were assigned to subgroups based on a cut-off score of 30 on normal dissociation. Results indicated that normal dissociation was unusually prominent among patients with mental disorders.