Psychosomatic syndromes and traumatic events discriminate between patients with fibromyalgia and patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background. Many studies have highlighted the importance of the psychological component in fibromyalgia (FM), although the underlying implications are not yet clear. Objectives. The current study aims to assess the prevalence of psychosomatic syndromes and traumatic events in patients with FM and patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and to evaluate their group membership (FM vs. RA) predictive abilities. Methods. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y), the Beck Depression Inventory - II (BDI-II), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Traumatic Experiences Checklist (TEC) and the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) were administered to 107 women with FM and 104 with RA. Results. Group comparison showed that patients with FM had significantly higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and difficulties in identifying feelings (TAS-DIF subscale) and a higher prevalence of psychosomatic syndromes and traumatic events, compared to patients with RA. The binary logistic regression showed that pain (OR=0.584; 95% CI=4.74 -0 .719), psychosomatic syndromes (OR=0.596; 95% CI=0 .459-0.773) and trauma score (OR=0.859; 95% CI=0.759-0.971) were statistically significant predictors of group membership (FM vs. RA). The final model explained 62% of the variance, with 83.3% of patients correctly classified. Conclusion. The present study confirmed the higher prevalence of psychosomatic syndromes and trauma events in patients with FM compared to patients with RA, further supporting their role in FM symptoms exacerbation and maintenance and thus their importance in the treatment planning.