Background/Purpose:

We wanted to know if fibromyalgia patients tend to obsess about their symptoms, and whether this might aggravate the complaints that they experience. We administered an obsessive-compulsive disease scale (1-3 for each question), as part of a questionnaire to patients in an office rheumatology practice.

Methods:

Patients in an office rheumatology practice were given a questionnaire, which included a scale of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The obsessive-compulsive questions were the following (each question 1-3):

1. I am worried about dirt, germs, and viruses.
2. I wash my hands very often or in a special way to be sure that I am not dirty or contaminated.
3. I must check the stove or other electrical appliances that I have locked the door, to make sure that things have not disappeared.
4. I get a compelling urge to put my things in a special order.
5. Do you have unwanted ideas, images, or impulses that seem silly, nasty or horrible?
6. Do you persistently engage in actions or behaviors that you feel compelled to do, but seem to make little sense and are unrewarding?

Results:

There were 160 females and 31 males in the fibromyalgia syndrome group, and 82 females and 48 males in the non-fibromyalgia rheumatic disease patient group. The mean age of the fibromyalgia patients was 52.45 years for females and 50.39 years for males. The mean age of the patients with other rheumatic disease was 55.23 years for females and 54.02 years for males. 66.5% of the FMS patients and 57.7% of the no-FMS patients were married. The mean HAQ scores in FMS patients was 3.1 and in non-FMS rheumatic disease patients was 1.7 (p 0.001). Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients met the 2010 ACR criteria for the diagnosis.

The obsessive-compulsive scale symptom total was 15.7 in FMS patients and 15.7 in non FMS rheumatic disease patients. p 0.84. The results were not statistically significant.

Conclusion:

Patients with fibromyalgia do not appear to be more obsessive-compulsive compared to rheumatic disease controls. Though fibromyalgia patients often have intense subjective symptoms, they do not appear to become more obsessive about their health problems, compared to non FMS rheumatic disease patients.

« Back to 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/fibromyalgia-patients-do-not-appear-to-obsess-about-their-symptoms-compared-with-other-rheumatic-disease-patients/