Emotional connection?

[Bramble2000]

Hi,

Is there a connection between PMR AC intense, prolonged emotional distress? I’m interested in people’s experiences but also any research that’s been done. Happy New Year to everyone. X

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Well known fact that stress, whether emotional or physical is very often a precursor to PMR and/or GCA.

This is one study from a few years ago -

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/1...

[SnazzyD]

Hello, certainly there seems to be, just from people’s posts. However, one might think that since life does have a habit of being tough, then reading that people have had upset and trauma (physical and mental) in their life is not surprising. I’ve not found any research that focuses solely on proving a cause but stress and infection pop often as possible causes. Generally it seems common for any illness to be not far away in those who are struggling with physical or mental issues. Personally I think my GCA was the culmination of decades of unrelenting stress, early emotional trauma and previous chemo. For some reason in me it lead to my immune system targeting my own body. As to why it came out that way is probably an impossible to fathom cocktail of physical makeup and environmental conditions (inner and outer) that made autoimmune illness the go to system failure.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Stress of any sort is just one aspect of the things that affect the immune system and eventually can overload it, You can't prove it is the sole cause because no-one has escaped all the other factors in the past but it is possible to see the effect of stress on the individual patient. There is never any argument here amongst my rheumy team about the role stress can play either in triggering the immune system meltdown or in contributing to flares.

Here are links to several publications or articles relating to it:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/181....

health.harvard.edu/blog/aut...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/301...

webmd.com/balance/stress-ma...