The comparasion treatment of personality fibromyalgia and somatoform disorders

AIM: The purpose of this study is to compare the personality traits and demographic characteristics of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), somatoform disorders (somatization disorder (SD), undifferentiated somatoform disorder (USD), conversion disorder (CD), hypochondriasis (HP), psychogenic pain disorder (PPD) and to seek the answer the question of whether fibromyalgia is a sub-type of somatoform disorders.Materials and Methods: 136 patients (28 SB, 30 FSB, 30 KB, 20 HP, 18 PAB) who had been diagnosed with a somatoform disorder according to DSM-IV, 30 patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, and 30 individuals with similar socio-demographic characteristics as a control group were included in this study. Personality characteristics of individuals participating in the study were evaluated by Hacettepe Personality Inventory (HKE). For sociodemographic information, 7 parameters including age, gender, marital status, education, occupation, economic status and place of residence were questioned.Results: We found that patients with FMS had similar socio-demographic characteristics with patients with somatoform disorders (p> 0.05). When HKE -with all sub-scales- was evaluated, the compliance of the control group was found to be better than that of patient groups. On the other hand, we have seen that the compliance of fibromyalgia group was in alignment with that of the somatoform disorders group (p> 0.05).Conclusions: FMS, which is described as a rheumatic disease, may be a sub-type of somataform disorders because it has several similar features with somatoform disorders such as socio-demographic properties, clinical symptoms, lack of any significant laboratory findings, unproved etiological hypotheses, frequent comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, and similar personality traits as we support with the current study. Further studies in larger groups of patients are needed in order to confirm our hypothesis.