The fibromyalgia patients would present higher levels of magnification that controls pain: A pilot study

Abstract

Catastrophism is a variable of great importance in the study of pain. Catastrophism refers to a negative and exaggerated compared to the experience of pain, both real and anticipated mental perception (Sullivan, Bishop and Pivik, 1995; Sullivan et al., 2001). The current study to compare the levels of catastrophism in patients with and without fibromialgia. This study is cross-cutting and comparative. Twenty participants (M: 47.20; SD: 12.11) distributed as the following way:

– group 1: patients with fibromyalgia previously diagnosed through the American College of Rheumatology criteria (n = 10);

– group 2: Clinical depression, defined according to the DSM-5 (n = 5);

– group 3: healthy patients (n = 5) paired by age with the group of Fibromyalgia.

The PCS, a self-administered, was used to measure Catastrophism. Responses were summed to yield three different subscales: Rumination, Magnification and Helplessness. This instrument is validated in both experimental and clinical population (Van Damme, Crombez, Bijttebier, Gouber and Van Houdenhove, 2002; Edwards et al., 2006). A comparison among the three groups was established using one-way factor ANOVA. The results point out that patients with fibromyalgia have higher levels of magnification controls with depression and healthy group (P < 0.05). In contrast, although the average level of Catastrophism total presented a greater tendency in fibromyalgia patients no statistically significant differences were found. This is discussed in relation to the literature, a higher level of magnification to explain pain and maintaining the chronicity of the disease. It is important to consider the component catastrophism to have a multidimensional view of pain.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.