PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE IN FIBROMYALGIA - RELATION TO PAIN SEVERITY

Fibromyalgia is a form of nonarticular rheumatism characterized by mus culoskeletal aching and tenderness on palpation. The role of psycholog ical factors in fibromyalgia has been controversial. The aim of this s tudy was to evaluate the relationship of fibromyalgia to the intensity of anxiety and depression and to determine the correlation between ps ychological disturbances with disease duration and pain severity. Thir ty-nine patients with fibromyalgia and 36 healthy controls were includ ed in this study. Beck depression inventory, State and trait anxiety i nventory and Beck hopelessness scale were used to evaluate psychologic al disturbances. Visual analog scale was used to determine pain intens ity. We found a significant difference in the psychological status bet ween patients with fibromyalgia and control subjects as measured by Be ck depression inventory and trait anxiety inventory; 35.9% of the pati ents scored higher than the cut-off score on the Beck depression ratin g scale. Pain severity was found to be correlated with trait anxiety i nventory scores. These results suggest that somatic expression of depr ession is an important difference between fibromyalgia and control gro ups. The difference between state and trait anxiety inventory reflects that current anxiety is not secondary to pain but trait anxiety is po ssibly causally related to pain.