FIBROMIALGIA TRAUMÁTICA E NÃO-TRAUMÁTICA: AVALIAÇÃO DO IMPACTO NA QUALIDADE DE VIDA EM MULHERES

Abstract

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome whose causes are as yet unknown. It is characterized by widespread chronic musculoskeletal pain as well as by the presence of painful areas called tender points, especially in the axial skeleton. According to the origins of symptoms, fibromyalgia can be classified as traumatic or non-traumatic, being the former considered when there is evidence of trauma as a triggering factor of the symptoms. Given that the impact of this disease on patients and relatives' quality of life is an important aspect to be taken into account, this paper aims at investigating the impact on the well-being of women suffering from both traumatic and non-traumatic fibromyalgia. Women suffering from fibromyalgia were selected to the study and divided in two groups: sufferers from traumaticinduced fibromyalgia (group I) and sufferers from non-traumatic fibromyalgia (group II). An structured questionnaire was used for the research, from which the counting of tender points has been analyzed and the pain intensity has been evaluated (through the Visual Analog Scale - VAS), in addition to the demographic data; the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) has been used to assess the quality of life and, to the statistic analysis, the Mann-Whitney test was used. 72 patients have been analyzed, being 34 from group I and 38 from group II. The main symptoms triggering factors - here understood as traumatic factors were divorce (23.5% of cases) and loss of family members (23.5% of cases); no difference between groups was found concerning age group, number of children, family income, education level, or marital status; the main symptoms reported by the patients, besides widespread pain, were fatigue, sleep disturbance, weakness and paresthesias, with no difference between groups; amongst the associated symptoms, headache was more prevalent in group I (p=0.0006); the counting of tender points and the pain intensity measurement were similar in both groups; as for the FIQ for quality of life evaluation, it has been worse within group I (p<0,0001). As a conclusion, a stronger impact on the quality of life of women suffering from traumatic fibromyalgia has been observed in this study.