The relationship of vitamin B12 and ferritin levels with neuropathic pain and disease severity in fibromyalgia syndrome

Objective: Fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic disease that includes general body pain, sleep disorders and fatigue. The aim of this study is to investigate whether serum vitamin B12 and ferritin levels are associated with disease severity and neuropathic pain in fibromyalgia syndrome. Materials and Methods: In this study, patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia according to the 2016 ACR diagnostic criteria between the ages of 18 and 65 who were admitted to the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic of Inönü University Faculty of Medicine Hospital with widespread pain were included. Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) aimed at measuring complaints that will affect daily living activities such as pain, insomnia, fatigue to participants, LANSS pain scale in order to investigate the neuropathic component of pain, and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were filled in.The participants were divided into two groups with and without neuropathic complaints. The blood B12 and ferritin levels of patients with and without high LANSS scores were compared, and the effect of these parameters on disease severity and daily living activities was evaluated. Results: A total of 110 patients, including 105 women and 5 men, were included in our study. While 69 of the participants had neuropathic pain, 41 did not. It was found that both B12 and ferritin levels were significantly lower in patients with neuropathic pain (p<0.05). A significant negative correlation was found between the FEA score and B12 level (p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between VAS and B12 (p>0.05). A significant negative correlation was also found between FEA and VAS score and ferritin level (p<0.05). Conclusion: In our study, we observed that low serum vitamin B12 and ferritin levels are associated with disease severity and neuropathic pain in fibromyalgia patients. We believe that serum ferritin and Vitamin B12 levels may also be effective in the etiology of pain and neuropathic symptoms in fibromyalgia patients. Key words: Fibromyalgia syndrome, Neuropathic pain, Vitamin B12, Ferritin.