Individual variation in temporal relationships between stress and functional somatic symptoms

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychosomatic Medicine
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Functional somatic symptoms (FSSs) are a significant health issue causing distress and disability.
• The link between psychosocial stress and FSSs is widely suspected but lacks robust empirical validation.
• Previous research often overlooks individual differences and temporal dynamics by focusing on group comparisons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the temporal relationship between daily stress levels and functional somatic symptoms (FSSs) within individuals.
• To explore individual variability in the stress-FSSs connection over time.

Main Methods:

• Employed electronic diaries for 20 patients with persistent FSSs to record stress and symptoms twice daily for 12 weeks.
• Utilized Vector Autoregressive (VAR) modeling on individual datasets to analyze associations between daily stress and FSS scores.

Main Results:

• An increase in stress preceded an increase in FSSs in 30% of participants.
• An increase in FSSs preceded an increase in stress in 15% of participants.
• No significant cross-lagged association was observed in only 10% of subjects, with varied associations found in others.

Conclusions:

• Psychosocial stress is not a universal trigger for FSSs, but it precedes symptom exacerbation in a subset of individuals.
• Time-series analysis offers a method to identify individuals whose FSSs are stress-related.
• Personalized treatment approaches for FSSs can be informed by identifying these stress-sensitive individuals.