Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 16:2021:5529032.
doi: 10.1155/2021/5529032. eCollection 2021.

Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life in a Sample of Italian Women with a Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia: The Role of Attachment Styles

Cristina Sechi  1 , Loredana Lucarelli  1 , Laura Vismara  1
Affiliations

Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life in a Sample of Italian Women with a Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia: The Role of Attachment Styles

Cristina Sechi et al. Depress Res Treat. .

Abstract

Background: Women with fibromyalgia (FM) commonly suffer from depression, pervasive fatigue, and pain. The attachment style has been hypothesized to be an important factor for understanding the experience of these symptoms. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study is aimed at investigating the effect of attachment styles in women with a diagnosis of FM on depressive symptoms and quality of life.

Method: Participants were 453 Italian women with a physician's diagnosis of FM with a mean age of 47 years (SD = 10.9). To assess attachment styles, quality of life, and depressive symptoms, women responded, respectively, to the Relationship Questionnaire, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory II.

Results: Our results showed that the incidence of depressive symptoms was elevated, with 59% of women reporting moderate to severe symptoms. Also, the statistical analyses showed that both preoccupied and avoidant/dismissing attachments were related with depression symptoms and low perception of QoL.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that, when evaluating the impact of FM on the QoL of women, it is important to consider the complexity of the variables that are at play. Insecure attachment styles and depressive symptoms seem to increase the likelihood of the psycho-social-somatic malaise in FM women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Heidari F., Afshari M., Moosazadeh M. Prevalence of fibromyalgia in general population and patients, a systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatology International. 2017;37(9):1527–1539. doi: 10.1007/s00296-017-3725-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Salaffi F., De Angelis R., Grassi W. Prevalence of musculoskeletal conditions in an Italian population sample: results of a regional community-based study. I. The MAPPING study. Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology. 2005;23(6):819–828. - PubMed
    1. Giacomelli C., Sernissi F., Sarzi-Puttini P., Di Franco M., Atzeni F., Bazzichi L. Fibromyalgia: a critical digest of the recent literature. Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology. 2013;31(6, Supplement 79):S153–S157. - PubMed
    1. Gureje O., Von Korff M., Simon G. E., Gater R. Persistent pain and well-being: a World Health Organization study in primary care. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1998;280(2):147–151. doi: 10.1001/jama.280.2.147. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Karper W. B. Effects of exercise, patient education, and resource support on women with fibromyalgia: an extended long-term study. Journal of Women & Aging. 2016;28(6):555–562. doi: 10.1080/08952841.2016.1223954. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources