Self-perceived cognitive function and neuropsychological performance in women with fibromyalgia

Cognitive dysfunction is a common complain in patients with fibromyalgia (FM).

To assess the perceived cognitive function and cognitive performance in women with FM.

Cross-sectional study including 100 women with FM (FMG) and 100 healthy controls (CG). Self-perceived cognitive functioning was evaluated using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Cognition scale (FACT-Cogv3). The neuropsychological performance was assessed with the Trail Making Test (TMT-A, TMT-B), Digit Span test (DS), Barcelona test (DS-F/B) and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB-E), Spanish version test.

The mean scores of all cognitive self-perception factors and all neuropsychological tests were lower in the FMG (p < 0.001). Over 90% of the FMG took longer than the population mean (P50) to complete the TMT-A and TMT-B tests, while in the CG, 1/3 took longer than the P50 in both tests. The minimum expected scores for the DS-F and DS-B tests were not achieved by 40 and 9% of FMG participants, respectively. According to FAB-E, 54% and 24% of FMG were categorized as fronto-subcortical deficit and fronto-subcortical dementia, respectively.

Women with FM have a higher perception of cognitive dysfunction and lower cognitive performance in objective tests than healthy women. More research is needed to explore the clinical, psychosocial, and sociodemographic characteristics that predispose to cognitive deficits in this group of patients.