Editing Brian Walitt

[[File:doctor_brian_wallit.jpg|right]]
'''Brian Walitt''', M.D., M.P.H. is a researcher in the Division of Intramural Research within the [[National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health]] at the [[National Institutes of Health]] (NIH) in the United States and oversees intramural clinical protocols. He is the lead clinical investigator of the [[NIH Post-Infectious ME/CFS Study]].

==Research==
Dr. Walitt's self-stated research interests include "pain and related interoceptive disorders (i.e. [[fibromyalgia]], [[chronic fatigue syndrome|chronic fatigue]])" and "social construction of illness and disease."

He is interested in studying "perceptual illness" which he defines as follows:

<blockquote>"In these disorders, a person experiences a range of different bodily sensations, such as pain and fatigue, without any clear external cause. In some, these sensations can be bothersome while in others they can be disabling. The perceptual illnesses that interest me change their names with every generation, with current disorders being called fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and [[Lyme disease|post-Lyme syndrome]]." <ref>[http://georgetownhowardctsa.org/researchers/researcher-stories/brian-t--walitt-  Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science]</ref></blockquote>

==Controversy==

Walitt has stated his belief that [[fibromyalgia]] is a "psychosomatic experience," a variant of normal, and not an abnormal disease state that should be medicalized.<ref>[http://www.familypracticenews.com/specialty-focus/rheumatology/single-article-page/video-fibromyalgia-doesnt-fit-the-disease-model/e913134880916685f3005dac5459ab88.html VIDEO: Fibromyalgia doesn’t fit the disease model]</ref> He has stated that fibromyalgia is not a disease but rather a way of "dealing with the difficulties of just being a human.”<ref>[http://www.meaction.net/2016/02/20/nih-lead-clinical-investigator-thinks-cfs-is-psychosomatic/ NIH lead clinical investigator thinks CFS and fibro are somatoform], #MEAction, February 20, 2016</ref>

In a 2015 paper on [[chemotherapy]] related [[cognitive dysfunction]]<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4750385/ Chemobrain: A critical review and causal hypothesis of link between cytokines and epigenetic reprogramming associated with chemotherapy]</ref> co-authored by Walitt, [[fibromyalgia]] and [[chronic fatigue syndrome]] are referred to as [[somatoform]] illnesses, with their hallmark being a "...discordance between the severity of subjective experience and that of objective impairment...".

Walitt has also stated that "Fibromyalgia is closely allied with and often indistinguishable from [[neurasthenia]]" and goes on to claim that "Time brings clarity to confusing illnesses of the past, and we now recognize that hysteria, neurasthenia, and railway spine were almost always psychogenic disorders."<ref>[http://www.nature.com/nrrheum/journal/v9/n12/abs/nrrheum.2013.96.html/ Culture, science and the changing nature of fibromyalgia]</ref>

In a very small uncontrolled study (n = 9) exploring the relationship between [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_expression genetic expression] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_catastrophizing pain catastrophizing] in Fibromyalgia, Walitt and his co-authors used a score of 16 on the Pain Catastrophizing Scale as the threshold for determination of "high catastrophizing".<ref>[http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/S0029-6554%2813%2900062-6/fulltext/ Gene expression profiles of fatigued fibromyalgia patients with different categories of pain and catastrophizing: A preliminary report]</ref>  That is in stark contrast with the threshold of 30 recommended by the scale's creators to indicate a "clinically relevant level of catastrophizing," and a mean score for 851 injured workers was 20.90.<ref>[http://sullivan-painresearch.mcgill.ca/pdf/pcs/PCSManual_English.pdf The Pain Catastrophizing Scale: User Manual]</ref>  Even the high catastrophizing subgroup (n = 5) in the study averaged a pain catastrophizing score of only 23.6, well below the recommended threshold.  The authors concluded that "specific physiological pathways may possibly delineate pain and catastrophizing mechanisms."

==Notable studies==
*2020, Characterization of post–exertional malaise in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome<ref name="Stussman2020">{{Cite journal | last = Stussman | first = Barbara | author-link = | last2 = Williams | first2 = Ashley | author-link2 = | last3 = Snow | first3 = Joseph | author-link3 = Joseph Snow | last4 = Gavin | first4 = Angelique | author-link4 = | last5 = Scott | first5 = Remle | author-link5 = | last6 = Nath | first6 = Avindra | author-link6 = Avindra Nath | last7 = Walitt | first7 = Brian | author-link8 = Brian Walitt | date = 2020 | title = Characterization of Post–exertional Malaise in Patients With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome | url =https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.01025/full | journal = Frontiers in Neurology|language=English | volume = 11 | issue = | pages=|doi=10.3389/fneur.2020.01025|issn=1664-2295|pmc=|pmid=|access-date=|quote=|via=}}</ref> [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.01025/full (Full text)]
*2015, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4750385/ Chemobrain: A critical review and causal hypothesis of link between cytokines and epigenetic reprogramming associated with chemotherapy]
*2015, [http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/26717948 Neuroimaging of Central Sensitivity Syndromes: Key Insights from the Scientific Literature]
*2013, Increased Brain White Matter Axial Diffusivity Associated with Fatigue, Pain and Hyperalgesia in Gulf War Illness [http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0058493 (Full Text)]<ref>Rayhan RU, Stevens BW, Timbol CR, Adewuyi O, Walitt B, VanMeter JW, [[James Baraniuk|Baraniuk JN]]. (2013) Increased Brain White Matter Axial Diffusivity Associated with Fatigue, Pain and Hyperalgesia in Gulf War Illness. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58493. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058493</ref>
*2012, [https://www.arthritis-research.org/files/Wolfe%20(2012)%20Culture,%20science%20and%20the%20changing%20nature%20of%20fibromyalgia%20-%20NRR%20submission%20version.pdf The Changing Nature of Fibromyalgia]
*2007, [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17634904 The effects of multidisciplinary therapy on positron emission tomography of the brain in fibromyalgia: a pilot study]

==Talks and interviews==
*2015, [http://www.familypracticenews.com/specialty-focus/rheumatology/single-article-page/video-fibromyalgia-doesnt-fit-the-disease-model/e913134880916685f3005dac5459ab88.html VIDEO: Fibromyalgia doesn’t fit the disease model] (there is a transcript<ref>[http://www.meaction.net/2016/02/20/nih-lead-clinical-investigator-thinks-cfs-is-psychosomatic/ NIH lead clinical investigator thinks CFS and fibro are somatoform]</ref>)

==Online presence==
*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Walitt%5BAuthor%5D PubMed - Brian Walitt]
==Online presence==
*PubMed
*Twitter
*Facebook
*LinkedIn
*[https://nccih.nih.gov/research/intramural/laboratory-clinical-investigations-branch/staff/walittb NIH - Dr Brian Walitt]
*[https://www.arthritis-research.org/research/brian-walitt-md-mph Arthritis Research - Brian Walitt]

==See also==
*[[NIH Post-Infectious ME/CFS Study]]
*[[Avindra Nath]]

==Learn more==
*2009, [http://cfsnova.com/sp-Walitt.html#events Fibromyalgia 201]
*2012, [https://www.arthritis-research.org/files/Wolfe%20%282012%29%20Culture,%20science%20and%20the%20changing%20nature%20of%20fibromyalgia%20-%20NRR%20submission%20version.pdf The Changing Nature of Fibromyalgia Frederick Wolfe and Brian Walitt]
*2013, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTwkooHUF8 Demystifying Medicine 2013 - Pain: How It Happens and What Can Be Done?]
*2015, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmSKgd-940s Prevalence of Fibromyalgia in Elderly Women]
*2016, [http://www.cortjohnson.org/forums/threads/the-psychosomatic-researcher-in-the-nihs-big-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-cfs-study.3757/ The Psychosomatic Researcher in the NIH's Big Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Study]
*2016, [http://www.meaction.net/2016/02/23/nihs-initial-response-to-article-and-comments-on-walitt/ NIH's initial response to comments and article on Walitt]
*2016, [http://thoughtsaboutme.com/2016/02/21/brian-walitts-radical-bias-disorders-of-subjective-perception-mecfs-as-normal-life-experience/ Brian Walitt’s Radical Bias: Disorders of Subjective Perception, ME/CFS as Normal Life Experience?]

==References==
{{Reflist}}


[[Category:Researchers]]
[[Category:US researchers]]
[[Category:United States National Institutes of Health officials]]
[[Category:NIH post-infectious ME/CFS study investigator]]
[[Category:Psychological paradigm proponents]]