Brief, Self-Report Fibromyalgia Screener Evaluated in a Sample of Chronic Pain Patients

Abstract

Objective To validate a self-report fibromyalgia screener in a chronic pain population. Design Adults with chronic pain were evaluated with a 6-item, self-report fibromyalgia screening tool, based on revised American College of Rheumatology (ACR) fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria, with fibromyalgia diagnosed when patients experienced chronic pain and scored ≥13 on the ACR Fibromyalgia Symptom severity scale. Patients were independently assigned clinical diagnoses by treating clinicians. Setting University-based, tertiary care pain clinic Subjects 337 mixed chronic pain patients Results Agreement between the clinical diagnosis and screener diagnosis was good (P<0.001), with 76% sensitivity and 82% specificity. Conclusion A self-administered, brief fibromyalgia screening questionnaire can effectively identify chronic pain patients who will likely have clinical fibromyalgia.

Not the Last Word: Fibromyalgia is Real

“…These strong effects are independent of, and much stronger than psychological factors, not at all confined to the end of this spectrum that we label as having fibromyalgia. Orthopaedists and other proceduralists should assess where individuals are on this continuum either by understanding how to identify this type of pain during their history and physical, or by administering the new fibromyalgia self-report measure [16]. This information is critical as you attempt to determine how much of an individual's pain is occurring because of a problem in the region of the body where you are contemplating operating, as well as how much is coming from superimposed brain pain amplification.…”

Editorial: The Status of Fibromyalgia Criteria

“…Marcus et al () studied 337 chronic pain patients who were classified into a group of fibromyalgia‐positive or fibromyalgia‐negative patients based on “physicians' diagnosis.” Using an incorrect criterion of a PSD Scale score of ≥13, they reported a sensitivity and specificity of 76.4% and 81.9%, respectively. But using a PSD Scale score of ≥13 rather than the actual criteria leads to lower sensitivity and specificity, and 23% of their fibromyalgia patients failed to meet the ACR 1990 criteria.…”

“…That is, that they should not be cases; otherwise, what will be identified as false-positive cases will actually be true-positive cases. Two studies in particular (by Bennett et al [7] and Marcus et al [8]) showed low specificity for the 2010 criteria, based on not excluding cases from the control group. This is a problem for criteria studies, rather than a true diagnostic problem where one could, for the purpose of the study, either include, exclude, or measure separately patients with concomitant illnesses.…”

“…Marcus et al (8) studied 337 chronic pain patients who were classified into a group of fibromyalgia-positive or fibromyalgia-negative patients based on "physicians' diagnosis." Using an incorrect criterion of a PSD Scale score of Ն13, they reported a sensitivity and specificity of 76.4% and 81.9%, respectively.…”

A critical overview of the current myofascial pain literature – February 2019

“…Of interest is that since 2010, several other criteria for the diagnosis of FM have been published (Wolfe et al, 2011;Marcus et al, 2013;Bennett et al, 2014). In 2016, Wolfe et al published a revision of the 2010/2011 criteria, which was supposed to diminish the misclassification of regional pain disorders (Wolfe et al, 2016).…”