{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T05:55:15Z","timestamp":1790229315378,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,2]],"date-time":"2025-03-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740873600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objective: The study analyzed the role of traumatic experiences and psychosomatic components as potential predictors of the likelihood of chronic pain patients having or not having fibromyalgia. Methods: We examined the role of stressful life events (Traumatic Experiences Checklist), psychosomatic syndromes (Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research), pain, and psychological distress (Beck Depression Inventory\u2014II and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) in 104 patients with fibromyalgia compared with a sample of 104 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Results: Patients with fibromyalgia reported significantly more traumatic events, a higher prevalence of psychosomatic syndromes, and higher levels of pain, anxiety and depressive symptoms compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (all p &lt; 0.01). Hierarchical binary logistic regression with group membership as the dependent variable showed that somatization syndromes (OR = 3.67), pain (OR = 1.56), and childhood trauma (OR = 1.11) were statistically significant predictors of group belonging, and the model explained 67% of the variance in diagnosis [\u03c72(9) = 143.66, p &lt; 0.001]. Conclusion: These results highlighted that patients with fibromyalgia are characterized primarily by marked somatization and a high prevalence of early stressful life events compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis, a primarily nociceptive chronic pain condition. A better knowledge of these mechanisms could allow clinicians to develop tailored interventions that take greater account of the psychological dimension of the disease.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph22030366","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]],"date-time":"2025-03-03T07:37:17Z","timestamp":1740987437000},"page":"366","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Stressful Life Events and Psychosomatic Symptoms in Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Rheumatoid Arthritis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1347-9762","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ada","family":"Ghiggia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34128 Trieste, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6452-399X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Valentina","family":"Tesio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabrizio","family":"Colonna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Enrico","family":"Fusaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rheumatology Unit, \u201cCitt\u00e0 Della Salute e Della Scienza\u201d Hospital of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giuliano Carlo","family":"Geminiani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Clinical Psychology Unit, \u201cCitt\u00e0 Della Salute e Della Scienza\u201d Hospital of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5009-2271","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lorys","family":"Castelli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"600","DOI":"10.1002\/acr.20140","article-title":"The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity","volume":"62","author":"Wolfe","year":"2010","journal-title":"Arthritis Care Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"680","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mayocp.2015.03.014","article-title":"Fibromyalgia and related conditions","volume":"90","author":"Clauw","year":"2015","journal-title":"Mayo Clin. 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