Clinical Characteristics of Our Female Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) presenting to our clinic in order to identify issues in healthcare services and other solvable areas. Method: Between 01.12.2023 and 31.12.2023, female patients admitted to the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic of Göztepe Prof. Dr. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital who were diagnosed with FMS according to the 2013 ACR modified diagnostic criteria were included in the study. Demographic characteristics of the patients including height, weight, educational status, marital status, occupation, habits, comorbidities and medications were recorded. Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FQI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were completed by all participants. Ethics committee approval was obtained for the study (decision no: 2021/0357) Results: A total of 44 female FMS patients were included in the study. Our patients were aged between 26-64 years (mean: 46.65±7.63). ). Body mass index (BMI) was 16.65-45.72 (mean: 28.82±6.11) While 20.5% of the patients had normal BMI, 75% were in the overweight or obese category. The majority of the participants were primary school graduates (50%), married (84.1%) and housewives (59.1%). 34% of our patients were active smokers. 52.3% of the patients had a chronic comorbidity. When the presence of chronic diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), Hypertension (HTN) was questioned, the most common comorbidity was DM with 25% and hypertension with 18.2%. 95.5% of our patients were fully independent in activities of daily living and ambulated without assistance. According to FQI results, 23.6% of the patients were severely and 45.5% were moderately affected. According to the BDI results, 22.7% of the patients had severe depression and 36.4% had moderate depression. Conclusion: Fibromyalgia patients need not only pain treatment but also evaluation and treatment of comorbid conditions. When we examine the patients in our study, it is seen that there is a serious depression and weight control problem. A multidisciplinary team including psychiatrists and dieticians will be more effective in the treatment of this disease. In addition, considering that most of our participants were married and graduated from primary school, further studies may be useful to evaluate whether social problems accompany the disease. It is important that physicians increase their awareness of the disease and manage patients with a multidisciplinary approach.