To examine the differential presentation(s) of psychological and health-related outcomes in young adults with juvenile-onset fibromyalgia (FM) with and without a history of trauma, compared to healthy controls.
In total, 110 participants (86 with juvenile-onset FM and 24 healthy controls, with a mean age of 23.4 years) completed a structured clinical interview to assess for trauma and psychological comorbidities, as well as self-report questionnaires on pain, physical functioning, and health care utilization.
Of the juvenile-onset FM participants, 37% (n = 32) reported a history of trauma. Three group comparisons (i.e., juvenile-onset FM with trauma versus juvenile-onset FM with no trauma versus healthy controls) revealed that juvenile-onset FM participants significantly differed from healthy controls on all psychological and health-related outcomes. Further, although juvenile-onset FM participants with and without a history of trauma did not significantly differ on pain and physical functioning, juvenile-onset FM participants with a history of trauma were significantly more likely to have psychological comorbidities.
This is the first controlled study to examine the differential outcomes between juvenile-onset FM participants with and without a history of trauma. Group comparisons between juvenile-onset FM participants and healthy controls were consistent with previous research. Further, our findings indicate that juvenile-onset FM participants with a history of trauma experience greater psychological, but not physical, impairment than juvenile-onset FM participants without a history of trauma.