RESEARCH - Traumatic experiences, major life stressors, and self-reporting a physician-given fibromyalgia diagnosis

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Psychiatry Res. 2010 May 30;177(3):335-41. Epub 2010 Apr 10.

Traumatic experiences, major life stressors, and self-reporting a

physician-given fibromyalgia diagnosis.

Haviland MG, Morton KR, Oda K, Fraser GE.

Department of Psychiatry, Loma University School of Medicine,

Loma , CA, USA.

Abstract

The contribution of stress to the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia has

been the subject of considerable debate. The primary purpose of the

present study was to evaluate the relationship between traumatic and

major life stressors and a fibromyalgia diagnosis in a large group of

older women and men. Data were from the federally funded

Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study, and subjects were 10,424 of

the 10,988 survey respondents-two-thirds women and one-third

men-providing responses to a fibromyalgia question. Average age was

61.0+/-13.5 years. A physician-given fibromyalgia diagnosis in a

subject's lifetime was reported by 3.7% of the sample, 4.8% of the

women and 1.3% of the men. In two multivariable logistic regression

models (all respondents and women only, controlling for age, sex,

race/ethnicity, and education), two traumatic experience types (sexual

and physical assault/abuse) were associated with a fibromyalgia

diagnosis. Two other trauma types (life-threatening and emotional

abuse/neglect) and major life stress experiences were not. The highest

odds ratios in both models were those for sexual assault/abuse

followed by physical assault/abuse. The relationship between age and

fibromyalgia was curvilinear in both models (odds ratios rising until

approximately age 63 and declining thereafter). In the all-subjects

model, being a woman increased the odds of a fibromyalgia diagnosis,

and in both models, fibromyalgia was associated with being White

(versus non-White) and lower education. We recommend that researchers

investigate the relationship between stress and fibromyalgia in

concert with genetic and biomarker studies.

PMID: 20382432

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20382432

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