Evaluating the Effect of Delayed Diagnosis on Disease Outcome in Fibromyalgia: A Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study

The impact of delayed diagnosis (DD) on fibromyalgia (FM) patients' symptomatology and disease outcome has not yet been systematically studied. To analyze the predictors of DD and the influence of DD on FM aggravation and disease evaluation measures. 370 FM patients were interviewed prospective...

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Published inJournal of pain research Vol. 16; pp. 1355 - 1365
Main Authors Moshrif, Abdelhfeez, Mosallam, Ahmed, Abu-Zaid, Mohammed Hassan, Gouda, Wesam
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01.01.2023
Dove
Dove Medical Press
Subjects
Analysis
diagnostic delay
early diagnosis
Fibromyalgia
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Original Research
Patient outcomes
tender points
widespread pain
Egypt
early diagnosis
widespread pain
diagnostic delay
tender points
fibromyalgia
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Summary:The impact of delayed diagnosis (DD) on fibromyalgia (FM) patients' symptomatology and disease outcome has not yet been systematically studied. To analyze the predictors of DD and the influence of DD on FM aggravation and disease evaluation measures. 370 FM patients were interviewed prospectively for this study. The following information was obtained: DD, widespread pain index (WPI), symptom severity scale (SSS), polysymptomatic distress scale (PDS) scale (SSS + WPI), and tender points. We identified three groups of patients: early diagnosis (ED: 2 years; 83 patients), late diagnosis (LD: > 2-7 years; 198 patients), and very late diagnosis (VLD: > 7 years; 89 patients). The patients' average age was 33.9 (9.8) years, and 79% were female. The SSS, PDS, and tender point means were 7.8 (1.6), 16.46 (4.1), and 14.31 (2.3), respectively. The correlation between DD and SSS (r = 0.14), the PDS scale (r = 0.37), and FM tender points (r = 0.16) was significant, but not with WPI (r = 0.06). When the three groups were examined, the SSS mean was 7.54 (1.6), 7.73 (1.4), and 8.25 (1.7), respectively (P 0.008), while the PDS mean was 15 (3.8), 15.95 (3.8), and 18.96 (4.4), respectively (P 0.008). (P 0.001). Early FM diagnosis is associated with lower SSS, total severity scale, and FM tender points, indicating a less severe condition.
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ISSN:1178-7090
1178-7090
DOI:10.2147/JPR.S381314