Fibromyalgia, co-morbid psychiatric disorder and gender. A study based on General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and (GHQ-30).

F ibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by body aches, widespread pain, sleep problems, extreme fatigue, depression, anxiety, and other symptoms, in combination with tenderness of specific areas (muscles and tender points) on the body. Recently, Gormsen et al 1 reported that patients with fibromyalgia had significantly more mental distress including depression and anxiety than healthy controls both by self-rating and by a professional rating. Fibromyalgia women showed poorer performance and learning alterations than healthy women, which indicated compromised emotion-based decision making. The current study aims to investigate any correlation between fibromyalgia, mental distress, and gender using general health questionnaire GHQ-12 and GHQ-30. Ninety-four fibromyalgia patients (74 females and 20 males) who attended Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq from 1st January to 15th June 2009 were asked to complete the General Health Questionnaire-Arabic version of the 12-item (GHQ-12) and 30-item (GHQ-30) to measure the level of their psychological distress and to identify potential cases of mental ill health. The GHQ-12 and GHQ-30 consists of 12 and 30 items, each one assessing the severity of mental problem over the past few weeks using binary scoring (GHQ scoring 0 0 1 1) and a 4 point Likert scale (simple Likert scoring 0 1 2 3). A GHQ-12 scoring of ≥4 was used as the cutoff point to define common mental disorders, with a maximum score of 12 indicating a likelihood of psychiatric illness. A GHQ-12 scoring of ≥5 was considered as a probable case. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia was made according to the following criteria: wide spread pain in all 4 quadrants of the body for a minimum of 3 months, at least 11 of 18 specified tender points when light pressure is applied to the surface of the muscles throughout the body. 1 The 18 sites used for the fibromyalgia diagnosis cluster around the neck, shoulder, chest, hip, knee, and elbow regions. Other tender points have been found to exist, but not used for diagnostic purposes. sleep disturbances, duration of illness and current pharmacological intervention were obtained from each patient. Routine laboratory investigations and x-ray of cervical spine were carried out for each patient. Patients with normal laboratory investigations including complete blood picture, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and negative serological tests were admitted in the study. Patients with radicular pain, neurological deficit, disc herniation, fractures, infection, malignant disease, systemic disease, and serious psychosis were excluded. The data were analyzed using Excel 2003 …