Brian Walitt: Difference between revisions

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==Research==
==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."
Dr. Walitt's 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:
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 [[post-Lyme syndrome|Lyme disease]]." <ref>[http://georgetownhowardctsa.org/researchers/researcher-stories/brian-t--walitt-  Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science]</ref></blockquote>
<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==
==Controversy==
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==Notable studies==
==Notable studies==
*2016, [[NIH Post-Infectious ME/CFS Study]]
*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, [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]
*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]
*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]
*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]
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==See also==
==See also==
*[[NIH Post-Infectious ME/CFS Study]]
*[[Avindra Nath]]
*[[Avindra Nath]]


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

Revision as of 22:05, May 1, 2017

Doctor brian wallit.jpg

Brian Walitt, M.D., M.P.H. is a researcher in the Division of Intramural Research within the National Center for Complimentary 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[edit | edit source]

Dr. Walitt's research interests include "pain and related interoceptive disorders (i.e. fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue)" and "social construction of illness and disease."

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

"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 post-Lyme syndrome." [1]

Controversy[edit | edit source]

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.[2] He has stated that fibromyalgia is not a disease but rather a way of "dealing with the difficulties of just being a human.”[3]

In a 2015 paper on chemotherapy related cognitive dysfunction[4] 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."[5]

In a very small uncontrolled study (n = 9) exploring the relationship between genetic expression and 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".[6] 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.[7] 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[edit | edit source]

Talks & interviews[edit | edit source]

Online presence[edit | edit source]

Learn more[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]