Patients with fibromyalgia showed executive dysfunction in subjective and objective measures, although most of this impairment was associated with mood disturbances. Exceptions to this general rule were observed in the impairment of working memory evidenced on the BRIEF-A scale and the inhibition impairment exhibited by the interference effect from the Stroop Test. The two types of measurement provide different yet complementary information.

Cognitive complaints are very frequent in patients with fibromyalgia, and these are related to functional and cognitive impairment as well as to depressive symptoms.

No abstract

BackgroundFibromyalgia (FM) patients frequently complain of cognitive problems, but it remains unclear whether these cognitive complaints can be attributed to a dysfunction of the central nervous system or if they can be explained by other factors associated with the disease, such as depression, anxiety and sleep dysfunction.MethodsOne hundred and ten patients with FM were compared with thirty-three patients diagnosed with a depressive disorder (DD) and fifty healthy controls (HC). Several measures of attention and executive functions were used to make these comparisons and the patients were also asked to complete questionnaires on depression, anxiety and sleep quality. Univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed to identify and control confounders and multiple linear models were used to examine the effects of fibromyalgia and depression on cognitive measures.ResultsFM and HC differed significantly with respect to depression, anxiety and sleep dysfunction, whereas FM and DD did not differ in terms of symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, FM was associated with a worse quality of sleep than DD. Comparisons of cognitive performance between groups showed that short-term and working memory and inattention measures were only associated with symptoms of depression, whereas selective attention was associated with both depression and fibromyalgia, and processing speed, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control showed a significant interaction between depression and fibromyalgia. Moreover, cognitive flexibility and inhibition abilities were specifically associated with FM.ConclusionFM patients show a cluster of cognitive impairment in the attentional and executive domains, although some of the symptoms observed could be explained by the severity of the symptoms of depression, while others seem to depend on the effects of fibromyalgia. Implications of the findings for the understanding and management of cognitive impairment of FM patients are discussed.

Introducción. Las personas diagnosticadas de fibromialgia refieren de manera muy frecuente quejas sobre su pobre funcionamiento cognitivo. En los últimos años ha aumentado el interés para investigar cuáles son las alteraciones cognitivas presentes en esta enfermedad. Objetivo. Realizar una revisión de las investigaciones publicadas sobre fibromialgia y funciones cognitivas. Desarrollo. Se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica con un intervalo temporal desde 1995 hasta 2012. Los términos de búsqueda incluyeron las palabras clave 'fibromyalgia' y 'cognition', 'attention', 'memory', 'language', 'perception', 'executive functions' y 'disexecutive syndrome'. Se seleccionaron 64 registros tras aplicar criterios de inclusión. Conclusiones. Los estudios que han analizado las funciones cognitivas en las personas diagnosticadas de fibromialgia han sido escasos y mayoritariamente con muestras pequeñas. Se han identificado déficits principalmente en la memoria de trabajo y en las capacidades atencionales más complejas, donde el factor distracción tiene una relevancia importante. También se ha identificado deterioro en la memoria a largo plazo y en las funciones ejecutivas. Existe consenso entre los diversos estudios en que el grado de dolor tiene una relación directa con el nivel de disfunción cognitiva, mientras que no existe total consenso para explicar la influencia de la depresión y ansiedad sobre el funcionamiento cognitivo en estos pacientes. Palabras clave. Atención. Discognición. Fibrofog. Fibromialgia. Funciones cognitivas. Funciones ejecutivas. Memoria. Metamemoria.