Paresthesia frequency in fibromyalgia and its effects on personality traits

Paresthesia and personality disorders are common conditions among patients with fibromyalgia. However, no previous study has examined a possible relation of paresthesia with personality traits in fibromyalgia. This study investigates the frequency of paresthesia in fibromyalgia patients and its relation with personality traits.

Female patients with fibromyalgia (n = 101) were divided into two groups according to the presence (n = 49; mean age 40.63 ± 7.62 years; range 23-55 years) or absence (n = 52; mean age 40.50 ± 7.12 years; range 27-53 years) of paresthesia. Also, a healthy control group (n = 53; mean age 39.34 ± 5.26 years; range 23-55 years) was included. The groups were evaluated by the Temperament and Character Inventory. Accordingly, temperament includes four dimensions: harm avoidance, novelty seeking, persistence, reward dependence; and character consists of three dimensions: cooperativeness, self-transcendence, self-directedness.

There were no significant differences among the three groups in the scores of novelty seeking, persistence, reward dependence and cooperativeness (for all P > 0.05). Both fibromyalgia groups had significantly higher scores in harm avoidance and had lower scores in self-directedness compared to the control group (P < 0.001). Also, fibromyalgia patients with paresthesia had significantly higher harm avoidance and self-directedness scores than those in patients without paresthesia (P < 0.001). In both fibromyalgia groups, self-transcendence scores were similar (P = 0.465) but significantly higher than in the control group (P < 0.001).

This is the first study evaluating the association of paresthesia and personality traits in fibromyalgia. These results suggest that psychological distress associated with high harm avoidance and low self-directedness scores are more prominent in fibromyalgia patients, and especially of those who have paresthesia.