Fibromyalgia in Women with Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Background: Widespread pain and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are observed in many patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Aim:The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of fibromyalgia and its associated symptoms in women with acne vulgaris.Patients and methods: sixty women with acne vulgaris and 45 age matched controls were enrolled for the study, the mean age and disease duration of the patient group were 21.75±2.1 and 6.5.0±1.5 years respectively, and the mean age of the controls was 21.3±2.8 years. Women with acne vulgaris was evaluated by using the Global Acne Scale. A two stage classification process was applied to determine the presence of FMS in women with acne vulgaris and controls. Stage 1 was answering the diffuse widespread pain questionnaire. In Stage 2, all patients with wide spread pain were examined for 18 tender points.Results: A total of 30 (50.0%) women with acne vulgaris were found to have widespread pain. A total of 18 women met the criteria of FMS with a prevalence rate of 30.0%. Conclusion:FMS and its associated symptoms are more prevalent in women with acne vulgaris than those in the general population. FMS was found to be associated with the severity of acne, and overweight. Proper management that decrease the severity of acne, and body weight may be associated with the alleviation of FMS symptoms in patient with acne vulgaris.