Introduction
pain, chronic diffuse dysfunctional, cognitive and attentional processes, FM
SYNDROME, FIBROMYALGIA
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic diffuse dysfunctional pain syndrome that affects around 2% of the population of Western countriesHowever, resuming adapted physical activities is challenging for FM patients from a clinical point of viewRumination, defined as a chain of repetitive, passive and relatively uncontrollable thoughts focused on negative content (including pain and its consequences in the FM context)Additionally, rumination theoryIn sum, the use of rumination to respond to the discomfort of daily physical activities might maintain a higher pain after exercise compared to other strategies (e.g., distraction) through cognitive and attentional processes, but also impair long term emotion regulation through the mechanism of experiential avoidance. However, the direct impact of rumination as a regulation strategy in FM has never previously been tested in experimental settings. Exploring this path seems to be particularly appealing as, according to a recent study, FM patients might be more prone to ruminative style of thinkingThus, the aim of this study was to test how rumination induction versus distraction induction impact the evolution of pain (pain intensity and discomfort caused by pain) and affect in FM patients after they performed an ecological physical activity (climbing stairs). To our knowledge, this is the first time that this kind of experimental protocol has been used in the context of the evaluation of repetitive negative thinking in FM. We hypothesized that patients using a rumination strategy just after an uncomfortable physical activity will show a poorer evolution of pain, subjective discomfort and negative affect as compared to patients using a distraction strategy.