Empirically Derived Classification Of Fibromyalgia Patients: Subgroup Differences In The Processing And Regulation Of Emotions

Background Patients with fibromyalgia vary widely in their physical and psychological functioning, and in how they perceive their disease. It has been reported that only one-third of patient benefits from treatment [1]. Multidimensional classification might help to tailor psychological treatment to the characteristics of patients [2]. Objectives 1) To replicate and describe the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) classification [3] in women with fibromyalgia and to examine whether the three MPI-classified subgroups differ in emotions, emotion processing styles, and emotion regulation strategies. 2) To study the association of emotion processing styles and emotion regulation strategies with fibromyalgia impact and positive and negative affect in MPI-classified subgroups. Methods Participants were 291 women with fibromyalgia. Cluster procedures, analyses of covariance, and moderator and simple slope regression analyses were conducted. Results Dysfunctional patients (DYS, 35% of the sample) presented the worst heath status and the highest levels of negative emotions, followed by the interpersonally distressed (ID, 26%) and the adaptive copers (AC, 38%) (all p p Conclusions This study confirms the importance of subdividing patients into subgroups and it highlights the possible differential impact of emotion processing styles and emotion regulation strategies on affect in each subgroup. Clinicians should take this into account when tailoring interventions to patients with fibromyalgia. References Turk DC. Fibromyalgia: A patient-oriented perspective. In: Dworkin RH, Breitbart WS, eds. Psychosocial and psychiatric aspects of pain: A handbook for health care providers . Seattle, WA: IASP Press 2004:309–338. Turk DC. The potential of treatment matching for subgroups of patients with chronic pain: Lumping versus splitting. Clin J Pain 2005;21:44–55. Turk DC, Rudy TE. Toward an empirically derived taxonomy of chronic pain patients: Integration of psychological assessment data. J Consult Clin Psychol 1988;56:233–238. Disclosure of Interest None Declared