Victimization in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in tertiary care - A controlled study on prevalence and characteristics

The authors studied the prevalence and characteristics of different forms o f victimization in 95 patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS ) or fibromyalgia (FM) compared with a chronic disease group, including rhe umatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and a matched healthy control group. The authors assessed prevalence rates, nature of vic timization (emotional, physical, sexual), life period of occurrence, emotio nal impact, and relationship with the perpetrator by a self-report question naire on burdening experiences. CFS and FM patients showed significantly hi gher prevalences of emotional neglect and abuse and of physical abuse, with a considerable subgroup experiencing lifelong victimization. The family of origin and the partner were the most frequent perpetrators. With the excep tion of sexual abuse, victimization was more severely experienced by the CF S/FM group. No differences were found between healthy control subjects or R A/MS patients, and between CFS and FM patients. These findings support etio logical hypotheses suggesting a pivotal role for chronic stress in CFS and FM and may have important therapeutic implications.