Many people are unaware that they have unusually flexible joints (are hypermobile). Joint hypermobility is a widespread, poorly recognized, connective tissue condition that affects about 20% of the population. There is growing evidence linking joint hypermobility with problems not just related to bones and muscles (e.g asthma, migraine, dyspraxia). Individuals with hypermobility are (up to 16 times) overrepresented among those with panic or anxiety disorders. Hypermobility is also linked to stress-sensitive medical disorders including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. We have shown that healthy people with hypermobile joints have structural differences in key emotion processing regions in the brain including an area called the amygdala (this is involved in the processing of fear). Although there is considerable evidence to support the link between joint hypermobility and anxiety relatively little is known about how joint hypermobility is related to other psychiatric disorders and stress sensitive symptoms in large population data sets and especially in children and adolescents. The ALSPAC birth cohort (over 6000 respondents) provides a rich data source including joint hypermobility status and a variety of psychometric variables that have yet to be analysed including presence of delusions, hallucinations, somatic and fatigue symptoms, worry, phobia, anxiety, panic, depression and ADHD.
Knowing more about the relationship between common joint hypermobility and psychiatric disorder in a large population will further research in this field and complement existing research currently being undertaken at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and will hopefully help us identify personalised strategies for illness prevention and management in the future.