Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:17:36.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Functional disorders can also be explained through a non-reductionist application of network theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Michael E. Hyland
Michael E. Hyland*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/michael-hyland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A network structure explains why reductionism is not possible for mental illness, but the same argument applies for the somatic symptoms of functional disorders. Because the covariation of symptoms of functional disorders cannot be explained in terms of symptom-to-symptom causality, explanation requires a network of biological mechanisms having emergent properties that cannot be reduced to biology.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e12
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bem, S. & De Jong, H. L. (2013) Theoretical issues in psychology: An introduction, 3rd edition. Sage.Google Scholar
Hyland, M. E. (2011) The origins of health and disease. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hyland, M. E. (2017) A new paradigm to explain functional disorders and the adaptive network theory of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia syndrome. In: Resistance and renewal in theoretical psychology, ed. Sullivan, G. B., Cresswell, J., Ellis, B., Morgan, M. & Schraube, E., pp. 21–31. Captus University Publications.Google Scholar
Hyland, M. E., Hinton, C., Hill, C., Whalley, B., Jones, R. C. & Davies, A. F. (2016) Explaining unexplained pain to fibromyalgia patients: Finding a narrative that is acceptable to patients and provides a rationale for evidence-based interventions. British Journal of Pain 10(3):156–61.Google Scholar
Kirsch, I. & Hyland, M. E. (1987) How thoughts affect the body: A metatheoretical framework. The Journal of Mind and Behavior 8:417–34.Google Scholar
Martinez-Lavin, M., Infante, O. & Lerma, C. (2008) Hypothesis: The chaos and complexity theory may help our understanding of fibromyalgia and similar maladies. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism 37(4):260–64.Google Scholar
Melidis, C., Denham, S. L. & Hyland, M. E. (2018) A test of the adaptive network explanation of functional disorders using a machine learning analysis of symptoms. Biosystems 185:22–30.Google Scholar
Stone, J., Wojcik, W., Durrance, D., Carson, A., Lewis, S., MacKenzie, L., Warlow, C. P. & Sharpe, M. (2002) What should we say to patients with symptoms unexplained by disease? The “number needed to offend”. British Medical Journal 325(7378):1449–50.Google Scholar
Sturmberg, J. P., Bennett, J. M., Martin, C. M. & Picard, M. (2017) “Multimorbidity” as the manifestation of network disturbances. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 23(1):199–208.Google Scholar
Wessely, S., Nimnuan, C. & Sharpe, M. (1999) Functional somatic syndromes: One or many? The Lancet 354(9182):936–39.Google Scholar
Wolfram, S. (2002) A new kind of science. Wolfram Media.Google Scholar