Somatic symptoms like pain, itch, and fatigue, can negatively affect daily functioning. In the acute phase, these somatic symptoms are adaptive as they push the body to protect itself from potential bodily threat. However, when these symptoms turn chronic, they may instead cause
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Somatic symptoms like pain, itch, and fatigue, can negatively affect daily functioning. In the acute phase, these somatic symptoms are adaptive as they push the body to protect itself from potential bodily threat. However, when these symptoms turn chronic, they may instead cause disability. Pain, itch, and fatigue have been shown to share mechanisms that maintain them towards chronicity and they commonly occur in various medical conditions. For example, pain and fatigue are common co-occurring symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis, cancer, chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia, and functional neurological disorders (e.g., Eccles and Davies, 2021; Maggio et al., 2020; Mense and Schiltenwolf, 2010; Petersen et al., 2020) and symptoms of itch, pain, and fatigue are often reported in patients with chronic skin diseases and other chronic conditions, such as some forms of cancer or kidney disease (e.g., Verhoeven et al., 2007). Additionally, each of these symptoms have a high prevalence rate (Dahlhamer et al., 2018, Lim et al., 2020, Weisshaar, 2016) and share the same evolutionary function; to protect the body from disease and harm (Boullosa and Nakamura, 2013, Cevikbas and Lerner, 2020, Walters and Williams, 2019). Furthermore, chronic pain, itch, and fatigue cause similar burden to those that experience them. These chronic symptoms can also limit productivity and interfere with daily activities which have been shown to lower quality of life (Cole et al., 2021, Gerbershagen et al., 2002, Van Heck and de Vries, 2002). Moreover, the stigma that may be associated with these symptoms could also contribute to low quality of life (Froehlich et al., 2022, Perugino et al., 2022, Warlich et al., 2015). [...]@en