Hypermobility and quality of life in female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome

ABSTRACT Objectives: Fibromyalgia syndrome is a complex disease with an unknown etiology, that is characterized by many symptoms such as chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunction. Hypermobility is characterized by increased range of motion of the joints and plays an important role in chronic pain etiology. This study aimed to determine the frequency of hypermobility in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and healthy control group and to investigate the effect of hypermobility on the quality of life in fibromyalgia patients. Materials And Methods: Our research group consisted of fifty female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and fifty healthy female control subjects, between ages 18-60. Subjects were picked from voluntary patients applied to the Ankara Ataturk Training and Research Hospital Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic.The diagnosis of fibromyalgia was made according to the American Collage of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria of 1990 and 2010. Beighton hypermobility scoring and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire for quality of life (FIQ) were used to evaluate hypermobility and quality of life of the subjects respectively. Results: Age and BMI (Body Mass Index) scores were not significantly different between the two groups. 16% of the FMS patients had coexisting hypermobility. The FIQ scores of the fibromyalgia group were significantly higher than the control group. There was no significant difference in hypermobility rates between fibromyalgia and control groups. The FIQ score was positively correlated with the number of tender points, symptom severity scale, and VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) resting. In all groups, Beighton score was negatively correlated with age. There was no significant difference between the quality of life scores of fibromyalgia patients with hypermobility and fibromyalgia patients without hypermobility Conclusions: Hypermobility rates were similar between fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls. There was no relationship between hypermobility and fibromyalgia, and there was no significant effect of hypermobility on quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia.