Abstract

PENIDO, Maria Amélia; FORTES, Sandra  and  RANGE, Bernard. A study of the social skills of the fibromyalgic patients. Rev. bras.ter. cogn. [online]. 2005, vol.1, n.2, pp. 75-86. ISSN 1808-5687.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, hypersensitivity to pain upon palpation, sleep problems and fatigue. Anxiety and Depression are prevalent co-occurring problems. It is more prevalent in women. This study aims to investigate the social skills of patients with fibromyalgia, defining which social skills are specifically difficult for this population and if these can be related to having fibromyalgia. This research was conducted with 107 subjects: 36 patients with fibromyalgia; 35 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 3 healthy control subjects. The study was performed at the Rheumatology Clinic of the University Hospital Pedro Ernesto. Evaluation included: a general questionnaire; the Health Assessement Questionnaire; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and two Social Skills Inventories. The Statistical analysis used the Student´s t-test, the split-plot ANOVA and the chi-square. The results indicated that there are significant differences between the averages of the tree groups. Fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis groups have lower performance in social skills. The fibromyalgia group had specifically lower performance in two social skills: saying no and asking for behavior change. Fibromyalgia group correlated positively with depression and anxiety. Generally the fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis groups did not differ in respect to social skills but the fibromyalgia group had lower performance in two specific social skills: saying no and asking for behavior change.

Keywords : Chronic pain; Fibromyalgia; Social skills.