Impact of resilience on disease severity and psychiatric comorbidities in patients with fibromyalgia

Abstract

Abstract Background Resilience is the process of adjusting successfully in the face of adversity, trauma, threats, or severe stress, such as serious health problems. It is one of the factors that affect recovery from psychiatric disorders. It was suggested that fibromyalgia patients have low resilience. This study aimed to assess the impact of resilience on disease severity and psychiatric comorbidities in patients with fibromyalgia. Results We found that patients with fibromyalgia had a significantly lower resilience and higher prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities than the control group (P < 0.05). Also, fibromyalgia patients with high disease severity had a significantly lower resilience and a higher percentage of psychiatric problems than those with a better disease state (P = 0.0001). Also, there was a significant negative correlation of resilience with disease severity (as assessed by the FIQ score), visual analog scale (VAS) of anxiety, and VAS of depression (P = 0.0001). Conclusion Resilience significantly impacts the severity and psychiatric comorbidities in patients with fibromyalgia. So, enhancing and improving resilience must be considered in the management protocols of fibromyalgia patients.

Keywords

• Resilience
• Fibromyalgia
• Psychiatric comorbidities
• Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25