BACKGROUND: Modern clinicians are often frustrated by their inability to understand fibromyalgia and similar maladies since these illnesses cannot be explained by the prevailing linear-reductionist medical paradigm. OBJECTIVE: This article proposes that new concepts derived from the Complexity Theory may help understand the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Gulf War syndrome. METHODS: This hypothesis is based on the recent recognition of chaos fractals and complex systems in human physiology. RESULTS: These nonlinear dynamics concepts offer a different perspective to the notion of homeostasis and disease. They propose that the essence of disease is dysfunction and not structural damage. Studies using novel nonlinear instruments have shown that fibromyalgia and similar maladies may be caused by the degraded performance of our main complex adaptive system. This dysfunction explains the multifaceted manifestations of these entities. CONCLUSIONS: To understand and alleviate the suffering associated with these complex illnesses, a paradigm shift from reductionism to holism based on the Complexity Theory is suggested. This shift perceives health as resilient adaptation and some chronic illnesses as rigid dysfunction.
BACKGROUND: Modern clinicians are often frustrated by their inability to understand fibromyalgia and similar maladies since these illnesses cannot be explained by the prevailing linear-reductionist medical paradigm. OBJECTIVE: This article proposes that new concepts derived from the Complexity Theory may help understand the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Gulf War syndrome. METHODS: This hypothesis is based on the recent recognition of chaos fractals and complex systems in human physiology. RESULTS: These nonlinear dynamics concepts offer a different perspective to the notion of homeostasis and disease. They propose that the essence of disease is dysfunction and not structural damage. Studies using novel nonlinear instruments have shown that fibromyalgia and similar maladies may be caused by the degraded performance of our main complex adaptive system. This dysfunction explains the multifaceted manifestations of these entities. CONCLUSIONS: To understand and alleviate the suffering associated with these complex illnesses, a paradigm shift from reductionism to holism based on the Complexity Theory is suggested. This shift perceives health as resilient adaptation and some chronic illnesses as rigid dysfunction.
Authors: Benjamin W Van Voorhees; Karen Vanderplough-Booth; Joshua Fogel; Tracy Gladstone; Carl Bell; Scott Stuart; Jackie Gollan; Nathan Bradford; Rocco Domanico; Blake Fagan; Ruth Ross; Jon Larson; Natalie Watson; Dave Paunesku; Stephanie Melkonian; Sachiko Kuwabara; Tim Holper; Nicholas Shank; Donald Saner; Amy Butler; Amy Chandler; Tina Louie; Cynthia Weinstein; Shannon Collins; Melinda Baldwin; Abigail Wassel; Mark A Reinecke Journal: J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2008-11
Authors: Ronald D Chervin; Mihaela Teodorescu; Ramesh Kushwaha; Andrea M Deline; Christine B Brucksch; Christine Ribbens-Grimm; Deborah L Ruzicka; Phyllis K Stein; Daniel J Clauw; Leslie J Crofford Journal: J Rheumatol Date: 2009-08-14 Impact factor: 4.666
Authors: Cesar F Reyes-Manzano; Claudia Lerma; Juan C Echeverría; Manuel Martínez-Lavin; Laura A Martínez-Martínez; Oscar Infante; Lev Guzmán-Vargas Journal: Front Physiol Date: 2018-08-17 Impact factor: 4.566