Impaired Decision-making Capacity in Patients Suffering From Fibromyalgia: a Cross-sectional Study

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Other
Study Type: Observational
SUMMARY

The literature has identified impairments in various cognitive functions, including learning, memory, attention, psychomotor speed, executive function, and working memory. However, only a few studies to date have investigated impairment in the decision-making process. The aim of this study is to evaluate decision-making skills in a group of patients with fibromyalgia and compare these results with a group of healthy controls. Specifically, investigators will evaluate four hypotheses: 1. Patients with fibromyalgia may show disadvantageous decision-making in contexts of emotional decision-making and may persevere more in their wrong choices. For this reason, investigators hypothesize that patients with fibromyalgia will more frequently choose the disadvantageous decks than the healthy control group in the Iowa Gambling Task. 2. Secondly, investigators hypothesize that patients with fibromyalgia need more time to make their choice. Consistent with this hypothesis, researchers expect to find significant differences in the average time taken by the participant to make a choice in the Iowa Gambling Task. 3. The third hypothesis is that patients with fibromyalgia may have greater difficulty inhibiting automatic responses, which may lead to longer reaction times in the Stroop task. Investigators also hypothesize that stimuli with negative emotional valence (related to the typical pain experience in fibromyalgia) may have a greater effect on patients with fibromyalgia than on healthy controls (longer reaction time in the emotional Stroop Task compared to healthy controls). 4. Finally, investigators hypothesize that anxiety, depression, sleep quality, pain, decision-making style and social support may be related to worse performance in ability-based tasks.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 18
Healthy Volunteers: t
View:

• Fibromyalgia syndrome (confirmed by a medical diagnosis);

• Able to understand English, Dutch or French;

• Signed an informed consent.

Locations
Other Locations
Belgium
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
RECRUITING
Brussels
Contact Information
Primary
Stefano Garzonio, Msc student
stefano.garzonio@vub.be
00393496243671
Backup
Zosia Goossens, PhD student
Zosia.Goossens@vub.be
Time Frame
Start Date: 2024-05-05
Estimated Completion Date: 2024-12
Participants
Target number of participants: 90
Treatments
Patients with fibromyalgia syndrome
Patients with fibromyalgia will be recruited at the UZ hospital in Brussels, at local patient organisations (e.g. VLFP), at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and via social media alerts.~This syndrome must be confirmed by a medical diagnosis. Participants should be able to understand English, Dutch or French, they must have signed an in-formed consent and they must be at least 18 years old. Patients with other diagnoses will be excluded from this study (e.g., osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, post-cancer pain, as well as patients with primary psychiatric/neurological conditions or psychopathological disorders). Subjects with a history of substance abuse or pathological gambling and individuals with color blindness will also be excluded.
Healthy controls
Healthy controls will be recruited through the University of Brussels or through social media alerts. Their exclusion criteria included, in addition to those specified for the fibromyalgia group, those who were suffering from fibromyalgia or had a severe rheumatic illness. Subjects should not have pain currently or have a recent history of pain (within the past 3 months).
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Leads: Vrije Universiteit Brussel

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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