PSYCHOSOCIAL VULNERABILITY AND MAINTAINING FORCES RELATED TO FIBROMYALGIA - IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS WITH 22 FEMALE-PATIENTS

The aim of this qualitative study was to describe, from the perspectiv e of 22 women (aged 22-60 years) with fibromyalgia, their experiences and beliefs of the pain and its origin and how the pain affects family and social life. Open-ended interviews were analysed via a method inf luenced by grounded theory. Seven descriptive categories were grounded in the data, forming two higher-order concepts: psychosocial vulnerab ility and maintaining forces. The first of these core concepts, psycho social vulnerability, comprises the categories: traumatic life history , over-compensatory perseverance, pessimistic life view, and unsatisfy ing work situation. In the interviews, there are abundant examples of early loss, high degree of responsibility early in life, and social pr oblems with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness later in life. T he second core concept, maintaining forces, consists of the categories professional care, pain benefits and family support, which seem to co ntribute to the persistence of pain. Our results indicate intrapsychic and psychosocial dimensions. which support the hypothesis that indivi duals with insecure attachment styles are overrepresented among patien ts with chronic pain.