Fibromyalgia and major affective disorder: a controlled phenomenology and family history study

Fibromyalgia is a form of nonarticular rheumatism characterized by diffuse musculoskeletal pain. To investigate the relationship between fibromyalgia and major affective disorder, the authors evaluated 31 patients with fibromyalgia and 14 patients with rheumatoid arthritis for rates of current or past major affective disorder and family history of major affective disorder. Both the rate of major affective disorder and the familial prevalence of major affective disorder were significantly higher in the fibromyalgia patients than the rheumatoid arthritis patients. The results suggest that fibromyalgia may be related to major affective disorder.