Pain extent is associated with Central Sensitization Inventory but not widespread pressure pain sensitivity or psychological variables in women with fibromyalgia

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the relationship between pain extent, as a clinical sign of central sensitization, and clinical, psychological, and pressure sensitivity in women with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

Method

In this study, 126 females with FMS completed demographic (age, gender, body mass index, height, weight), clinical (pain history, and pain intensity at rest and during daily living activities), psychological (depression and anxiety levels), and neurophysiological [pressure pain threshold (PPT)] assessments. The Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) was also used to collect self-reported symptoms of sensitization. Pain extent and frequency maps were obtained from pain drawings using customized software. After conducting a multivariable correlation analysis to determine the relationships between variables, a stepwise linear regression model analysis was performed to identify variables associated with pain extent.

Results

Pain extent was positively associated with age (r = 0.17), years with pain (r = 0.27), pain during daily life activities (r = 0.27), and CSI (r = 0.42) (all p < 0.05). The stepwise regression analysis revealed that 27.8% of the pain extent was explained by CSI, age, and years with pain.

Conclusions

This study found that larger pain extent was associated with self-reported outcomes, i.e. CSI, but not neurophysiological outcomes, i.e. PPTs, of sensitization in women with FMS. Older age and a longer history with pain symptoms were also associated with larger pain extent.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Niko Bonomi^I, Corrado Cescon^II, Marco Derboni^III, Vincenzo Giuffrida^III, Giuseppe Landolfi^I, and Andrea Emilio Rizzoli^III (^IInstitute of Systems and Technologies for Sustainable Production, ISTEPS, SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland; ^IIRehabilitation Research Laboratory, 2rLab, SUPSI, Manno, Switzerland; ^IIIDalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence, IDSIA, USI-SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland) for the development of the online pain drawing platform that supported the results.

Data availability statement

All data derived from this study are presented in the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

All listed authors participated meaningfully in the study, and they have seen and approved the submission of this manuscript. Conceptualization, CFd-l-P, JAV-C; software and data curation, MB; writing – original draft preparation, JAV-C, MB, and CF-d-l-P; supervision, JAV-C; project administration, CF-d-l-P; methodology, investigation, resources, writing – review and editing, and visualization, all authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the This research was funded by Camilo José Cela University (ID: CENSEN) [CENSEN].