Vulnerability to Psychopathology and Dimensions of Personality in Patients With Fibromyalgia.

Objective: Fibromyalgia (FM) patients may present psychopathology and some characteristic personality traits that may affect their adaptation to the disease. The aim of this paper was to study the relationship between personality dimensions according to the psychobiological model of Cloninger and the presence of psychopathology.

Materials And Methods: The study sample consisted of 42 patients with FM and 38 pain-free controls.

Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality and psychological distress in fibromyalgia.

Aim: Personality can play an important role in the clinical symptoms of fibromyalgia (FM). The aim of this study is to identify personality profiles in FM patients and the possible presence of personality disorder (PD) from the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R), and to assess whether personality dimensions are related to psychological distress in FM.

Method: The sample consisted of 42 patients with FM and 38 healthy controls.

Altered functional magnetic resonance imaging responses to nonpainful sensory stimulation in fibromyalgia patients.

Objective: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder characterized by chronic pain and enhanced responses to acute noxious events. However, the sensory systems affected in FM may extend beyond pain itself, as FM patients show reduced tolerance to non-nociceptive sensory stimulation. Characterizing the neural substrates of multisensory hypersensitivity in FM may thus provide important clues about the underlying pathophysiology of the disorder.

The contribution of sensory system functional connectivity reduction to clinical pain in fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia typically presents with spontaneous body pain with no apparent cause and is considered pathophysiologically to be a functional disorder of somatosensory processing. We have investigated potential associations between the degree of self-reported clinical pain and resting-state brain functional connectivity at different levels of putative somatosensory integration. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained in 40 women with fibromyalgia and 36 control subjects.

The role of color duplex sonography in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis.

Objective: To determine the clinical usefulness of color duplex sonography in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis as an alternative to temporal artery biopsy.

Methods: From May 1998 to November 2002, 68 consecutive patients seen in our hospital with a clinical suggestion of active temporal arteritis were included. Forty-eight patients were female and 20 were male, with a mean age of 77 years.