Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 05/08/2013 08:30:01

Title: Could grief cause paroxysmal joint pains?
Post by: thedoc on 05/08/2013 08:30:01

cops  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Thanks for the opportunity to pose this question to you.

I'm a 60 year old young man. Though I lost my father, my favourite aunt and my younger brother all in the same year when I was just 11 years old I didn't experience the symptom I am about to describe to you - until I lost my eldest brother 11 years ago and experienced it again a year later when my mother passed on. Since then, the symptoms recur fairly often relative to circumstances as I will explain.

The symptom appears to be associated with grief... being triggered by extreme grief initially, but now the symptom presents itself even when I watch a fictional movie where sadness is encountered whether due to a sad scenario involving even an animal.

For example, I endure the symptom several times while watching the movie entitled "Hachiko: A Dog's Story" starring Richard Gere.

The symptom presents itself as a deep joint ache of the extremities. The finger's and sometimes even the toe's knuckles. It subsides relative to recovery from the temporal grief/sadness which I had just experienced.

I hope I have explained myself adequately.

I listen to your show (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/) on TalkRadio 702 on Friday mornings as often as I can though unfortunately I sometimes miss it due to work commitments.

Best wishes!
Bernard  

What do you think?

Title: Re: Could grief cause paroxysmal joint pains?
Post by: RD on 14/07/2013 13:11:47

If the pain only accompanies emotion then it's psychogenic ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogenic_pain

Childhood trauma can be a cause of conversion disorder/syndrome ...

Quote from: wikipedia.org/Conversion_syndrome

Typically conversion syndrome begins with some stressor, trauma, or psychological distress that manifests itself as physical symptoms. Usually the physical symptoms of the syndrome affect the senses and movement. For example, someone experiencing conversion syndrome may become temporarily blind due to the stress of the loss of a parent or spouse. While there can be a wide range in severity and duration, symptoms are typically short-lived and relatively mild

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_syndrome

Quote from: wikipedia.org/Conversion_disorder

... a recent neuroimaging study showing abnormal emotion processing of a traumatic event linked to motor processing of the affected limb, in a patient with conversion ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_disorder#Causes

So death of father & brother & aunt when you were 10-11-12 years old could indeed be the origin of the symptoms.