Research articles from July

Some of the most interesting research relevant to Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro) that has been published over the last month and discussed in the FibroAction Research section is summarised here.

Online Group Lurkers may not get the most benefit

If you go to an online support group but "lurk" rather than participating, it may be preventing you from getting the most benefit out of the group, according to the recently published results of a Dutch study. The researchers found that lurkers were significantly less satisfied with online support groups compared to posters and that their social well-being wasn't enhanced.

GPs can treat Fibro just as well as consultants

A recently published study compared how effective the treatment of Fibro was that was available in both primary care - the healthcare provided at GP surgeries for example - and specialised settings - such as with hospital consultants - as well as looking at things that helped to improve how well patients did. The researchers found that the treatments used in the studies were mostly effective, but that patients treated in specialised settings did not get noticeably more efficient treatments compared to those patients that just saw GPs.

Another aspect of Fibrofog measured

People with Fibro have trouble reading words and naming colours quickly, according to a recently published article. This is yet another aspect of the problems with thinking, nicknamed "Fibrofog", experienced by Fibro patients, that has actually been measured. The researchers studied people with Fibro and memory problems and people who had memory problems but not Fibro and got them to do 10 timed tasks designed to measure various aspects of how fast their brains worked. They found that people with Fibro were especially slow at reading words and naming colours, but did okay at the other taks.