Alexithymia in Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is one of the most frequent rheumatologic conditions, its main characteristic being chronic diffuse musculoskeletal pain and hyperalgesia, likely due to altered central processing of pain (1). Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain. Besides the painful setting, these patients often complain of fatigue, sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, and paresthesia on the extremities, subjective edema sensations and cognitive disturbances. Many patients experience cognitive dysfunction known as "fibrofog" which may be characterized by impaired concentration. Cognitive symptoms in these patients may be exacerbated by the presence of depression, anxiety, sleep problems, endocrine disturbances, and pain. Association with other comorbidities is often found, contributing to the suffering and decline in quality of life of these patients. Among the most frequent comorbidities found, it can be mentioned depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, myofascial syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and nonspecific urethral syndrome (2). Various researches show that there were relation between chronic pain and cognitive dysfunction in FM patients. Managing chronic pain may take some cognitive effort and this may interfere with performance on cognitive tasks. This is important because even though FMS patients report cognitive symptoms, physicians and scientists must consider the possibility that because FM patients experience many symptoms, there may be a tendency to mistake normal, everyday lapses on cognition as something more serious (3).