INFORMATION-PROCESSING IN PRIMARY FIBROMYALGIA, MAJOR DEPRESSION AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

Objective. To assess the information processing capabilities in 25 pat ients with primary fibromyalgia (FM) by comparing them with 22 patient s with major depression and 18 healthy controls. Methods. A broad rang e of tasks related to various subcomponents of information processing were included. Results. Our results indicated that patients with prima ry FM in general share with depressives a nonspecific deficit in infor mation processing capacity. However, our data showed that cognitive dy sfunction reflecting a presumed compromise of the right hemisphere is present in major depression, but not in primary FM. Conclusion. This f inding would suggest that primary FM and depression are probably diffe rent conditions.