The impact of life events in female patients with fibromyalgia and in female healthy controls

The aim was to investigate if female fibromyalgia patients (FMS) had experi enced more negative life events than healthy women. Furthermore, the life e vents experienced in relation to onset of the FMS were evaluated. Another i mportant area was to investigate the impact of the events experienced in th e patients compared to healthy women. A new inventory was constructed to as sess life events during childhood, adolescence and in adulthood as well as life events experienced in relation to the onset of the disorder. Forty fem ale FMS patients and 38 healthy age-matched women participated in the study . During childhood or adolescence 51% of the patients had experienced very ne gative life events as compared to 28% of the controls. Conflict with parent s was the most common life event. Before onset, 65% of the patients experie nced some negative life event. Economic problems and conflicts with husband /partner were common. During the last year, 51% of the patients had life ev ents which they experienced as very negative, compared to 24.5% of the cont rols (P < 0.01). Stressful life events in childhood/adolescence and in adul thood seem to be very common in FMS. Furthermore, the life events were expe rienced as more negative than the life events experienced by healthy contro ls. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.