Concentration and Memory Deficits in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome

The present study compared 30 patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FS) to 30 healthy control subjects matched for age, sex, and estimated intellectual level on standardized measures of attention, concentration, and memory as well as subjective ratings of memory abilities and sleep quality. In addition, in order to investigate the relationship between cognitive functioning and other physical and psychological symptoms, subjects with FS completed psychological measures of pain severity, trait anxiety, and depression. Results indicated that patients with FS performed more poorly on tests of immediate and delayed recall, and sustained auditory concentration, and their ratings of both their memory abilities and sleep quality were lower than those of controls. Furthermore, perceived memory deficits of the FS subjects were disproportionately greater than their objective deficits. Results indicated significant correlations between performance on memory and concentration measures and scores on questionnaires of pain severity and trait anxiety. Implications of these results for multidisciplinary treatment programs are discussed.