Association Between Sexual Dysfunction, Sleep Impairment and Depression in Women with Fibromyalgia

Abstract

We evaluated whether patients who meet the survey criteria for fibromyalgia suffer from a higher rate of sexual dysfunction and sleep disorders compared to those without fibromyalgia. While 54 of the participants were patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia, the remaining 41 made up the healthy control group of the study. The patients were given four different sets of questionnaires: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) in order to evaluate sleep function, fibromyalgia disease severity, depression status and sexual function. We found a mean FSFI score of 19.29 ± 3.35 in the women with FMS and 25.88 ± 2.47 in the control group. The participants with FMS suffered from higher depression rates compared to participants in the healthy group. With PSQI score > 5 indicating the presence of a sleep disorder, sleep disorders were detected in 66.6% of women with FMS and 39.3% without FMS. In the Spearman correlation analysis, weak negative correlation was found between the PSQI and FSFI values (r = − 0.213; p = 0.076). In contrast, a positive correlation was detected between the FSFI and RFIQ (r = 0.578; p = < 0.001). Finally, a negative correlation was detected between FSFI and BDI values (r = − 0.509; p < 0.001). Therefore, physicians who investigate the fibromyalgia syndrome in their routine practice to take the negative effects of sexual dysfunction on female patients into consideration.