The effects of vitamin D and other laboratory parameters on clinical and emotional conditions and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients

Objective: Fibromyalgia Syndrome has an unknown etiopathogenesis and is a type of soft tissue rheumatism which is characterised by chronic and diffuse musculo-skeletal pain, non-restorative sleep, generalize fatique and morning stiffness. One of the theory on its etiopathogenesis is underlying vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with refractory musculoskeletal pain and neuromuscular dysfunction. In this study we aimed to investigate the effects of vitamin D and other laboratory parameters on clinical and emotional conditions and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients.Materials and Methods: 73 patients with fibromyalgia syndrome who were diagnosed according to ACR 1990 FM diagnosis criteria and 31 healthy women were included between October 2007 and July 2008 were taken in this study. A detailed patient?s form was filled that included menopause, marital status, number of pregnancy, alive childbirth and children, height, weight, body mass index, disease diagnosis time, education level, surgical history, accompanied systemic illness, used medications, smoking and alcohol habits, using sun-protect cream, styles of wearing, number of tender points, visual analogue scale (VAS), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Scale, Modified Fatigue Impact Scale and Nottingham Health-Profile scale.Results: In this study, no significant difference was found in age and weight between FM patients and controls groups. Patient?s and phsician?s global evaluation of disease severity impact, number of tender points, pain score (VAS), Hamilton Depression and Anxiety scale scores, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) scale, Nottingham Health-Profile scale total subscores and Modified Fatigue Impact scale were significantly higher in fibromyalgia patients group when compaired with control group (p<0,05). We found that mean levels of 25(OH) vitamin D3 as 24,63±14,12, PTH 63,07±33,79, calsitonin 2,40±1,12 in FM patients. Low 25(OH) vitamin D levels and high PTH levels were found significantly in fibromyalgia patients. We found negative corelations between vitamin D levels and FM diagnosis time and between vitamin D levels and FIQ score. In addition, we found strong positive corelation between PTH levels and age, number of pregnancy, FM diagnosis time and ALP levels. Calsitonin levels were declined with age, and had a positive corelation with number of tender points.Conclusion: In this study; we found that vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency may be associated with FM disease. In addition we concluded that low levels of vitamin D increase significantly total scores of FIQ and fatique. We suggested that vitamin D deficiency had effects on quality of life, pain, fatique, depression and anxiety and can aggravate the symptoms in FM patients.