Fibromyalgia: a time-series analysis of the stressor-physical symptom association

J Behav Med. 1992 Dec;15(6):541-58. doi: 10.1007/BF00844855.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association among daily stressors, cognitive rumination, and fibromyalgia symptoms using time-series methodology and to determine whether autocorrelation was present in the self-report data. Twelve female fibromyalgia subjects monitored their daily level of stressors, cognitive rumination, and fibromyalgia symptoms for 30-35 days. Time-series regression analyses indicated that there was a positive association between previous-day stressors and fibromyalgia symptoms for one subject and between previous-day cognitive rumination and fibromyalgia symptoms for four subjects. For 7 out of 12 subjects autocorrelation was present, and generalized least-squares methods were used with these subjects. These results indicate that ordinary least-squares methods may often not be appropriate for within-subject designs with self-report data. These results also question the often reported stressor-physical symptom association. This study illustrates a useful methodology and analysis to investigate psychosocial-physical symptom associations.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis
  • Cognition Disorders / psychology
  • Female
  • Fibromyalgia / complications
  • Fibromyalgia / diagnosis*
  • Fibromyalgia / psychology
  • Humans
  • Life Change Events*
  • Regression Analysis
  • Stress, Psychological / diagnosis*
  • Time Factors