Abstract
BACKGROUND: The impact of delayed diagnosis (DD) on fibromyalgia (FM) patients' symptomatology and disease outcome has not yet been systematically studied. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the predictors of DD and the influence of DD on FM aggravation and disease evaluation measures. METHODS: 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). RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSION: Early FM diagnosis is associated with lower SSS, total severity scale, and FM tender points, indicating a less severe condition.