Session Information
Session Title: Fibromyalgia, Soft Tissue Disorders, Regional and Specific Clinical Pain Syndromes: Research Focus
Session Type: Abstract Submissions (ACR)
Background/Purpose: Many fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) report that their illness is significantly affected by environmental stress. We compared FMS and RA patients with respect to the impact of a variety of environmental conditions on their pain..
Methods: 211 office patients with either FMS (150; 130 women and 20 men; mean age 51±12) or RA (61; 45 women and 16 men; mean age 55±15) completed a questionnaire about the effect of various environmental conditions on their pain, rated as 1 = no effect, 2 = mildly worse, 3 = moderately worse, and 4 = severely worse. The two-sided Mann-Whitney test was done to compare FMS and RA patients with respect to these ratings, using 0.05 significance level.
Results: Compared to RA patients, FMS patients had significantly worse ratings for cold weather (2.7 ± 1.1 vs. 2.2 ± 1.0, p = 0.003), humidity (2.5 ± 1.1 vs. 2.0 ± 0.9, p = 0.004), rain (2.6 ±1.1 vs. 2.2 ± 1.0, p = 0.027), weather change (2.8 ± 1.0 vs. 2.3 ± 0.9, p = 0.004), smells (1.4 ± 0.8 vs. 1.1 ± 0.4, p = 0.002), season change (2.2 ± 1.0 vs. 1.8 ± 0.9, p = 0.018), loud noises (1.5 ± 0.8 vs. 1.1 ± 0.5, p = 0.001), emotional stress (2.6 ± 1.1 vs. 2.1 ± 1.0, p = 0.002), physical stress (2.7 ± 1.0 vs. 2.2 ± 1.0, p = 0.001), and air travel (1.8 ±1.0 vs. 1.4 ± 0.7, p = 0.007).
Conclusion: FMS patients, compared with RA patients, report significantly worse impact on their pain from many environmental conditions. Whether the etiology of fibromyalgia relates to central sensitization, hypervigilance, or an inherited somatoform trait, these patients are generally quite sensitive to environmantal stresses.
Disclosure:
R. S. Katz,
None;
B. J. Small,
None;
S. Shott,
None.
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/the-impact-of-environmental-stress-on-pain-in-fibromyalgia-patients/