Association of stress, sleep, habits with fibromyalgia

CASTAGNINO J; RODRÍGUEZ LÓPEZ E; GARCE S; FLEITAS RUMAK P; STEIMBERG J; MARITANO J; LIPSZYC P; GENARO AM; SCUBLINSKY D

Rosario, Santa Fé, Argentina

Congreso; XLI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Farmacología Experimental; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Farmacología Experimental

Fibromyalgia (FM) is an enigmatic entity that consists in a chronic pain syndrome which has been associated with sleep disorders and stress. We developed this study to clarify if this association is due to chronic pain or FM. The main objective of our study was: to determine the association between perceived stress, sleep disorders, habits in fibromyalgia and chronic pain controls (CPC). There were recluted 54 cases (81.5% women, 18.5% men) that fulfilled FM ACR 1990 criteria, 164 controls (78.7% women, 21.3% men) with pain but without the disease and 190 healthy controls. Age of patients was between 18 and 65 years old, both women and men. All patients received a four pages questionnaire. It included nine items as follows: 1) Personal data 2) Medication (including self-medication) 3) Alcoholism CAGE questionnaire 4) Smoking Fagerström Test 5) Diseases history 6) Fibromyalgia history 7) Chronic pain history 8) Sleep Questionnaire and 9) Perceived Stress Questionnaire FM patients showed a significantly higher level of perceived stress than CPC (p < 0.0001). Alcohol intake was significantly higher in CPC than FM (p < 0.004). There was no difference between CPC and FM in smoking. Self-medication was higher in CPC than FM (p < 0.014). There was no difference in the sleep lost days in CPC respect to FM. However the vast majority of FM patients felt that they had not gotten a restful sleep. These results showed that fibromyalgia is a specific syndrome strongly connected with stress that involves more than just pain.