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Psychological distress, alexithymia affected QoL in fibromyalgia patients
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Patients with fibromyalgia have a high prevalence of alexithymia and psychological distress that, if evaluated, may help clinicians treat this population and improve their quality of life, according to study results.
Researchers in Italy studied 55 women (mean age, 52.8 years) with fibromyalgia (FM) who answered tests assessing alexithymia, depression, anxiety, emotional distress symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). To evaluate the role that alexithymia and these other conditions had on patients’ quality of life, two regression analyses were performed.
More than half the patients displayed psychological distress when measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for depression (60%) and anxiety (52.7%) and by the Distress Thermometer (72.7%). Twenty percent of patients displayed alexithymic traits at the clinical level. When patients with alexithymic traits in a subclinical level were included, the percentage increased to 47%.
Where pain intensity, existing pain and depression variables contributed to the physical component of HRQoL in FM patients, the researchers said anxiety, depression and pain intensity comprised the mental ingredients that make up HRQoL.
“The present study, besides confirming the high presence of psychological distress, suggests that, in order to treat FM patients and improve their quality of life, it is important to also take into consideration these aspects,” the researchers concluded. “Our study provided evidence about the high prevalence of alexithymia in FM patients. [Alexithymia] seems to have an indirect effect on the quality of life, partially mediated by the psychological distress.
“Not only [do] alexithymic traits interfere with [patients’] daily ability to identify accurately their own subjective feelings, but they make it difficult for patients to report their psychological distress symptoms. The inclusion of alexithymia in the psychological screening of FM patients would allow clinicians … to plan the better pharmacological and/or psychological treatment in order to improve the quality of life of FM patients.”
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