Fibromyalgia in patients with acne vulgaris

Widespread pain and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are observed in many patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of fibromyalgia and its associated symptoms in patients with acne vulgaris. Ninety-one patients with acne vulgaris and 84 sex and age matched controls were enrolled for the study, the mean age and disease duration of the patient group were 21.75±2.1 and 6.5 ±1.5 years respectively. Acne vulgaris was evaluated by using the Global Acne Scale. A two stage classification process was applied to determine the presence of FMS in patients with acne vulgaris and controls. Stage 1: was answering the diffuse widespread pain questionnaire. In Stage 2, all patients with wide spread pain were examined for 18 tender points. A total of 35 (38.4%) patients with acne vulgaris were found to have widespread pain. A total of 21 patients met the criteria of FMS with a prevalence rate of 23.0%; of them, 18 (85.7%) were women. FMS and its associated symptoms are more prevalent in patients with acne vulgaris than in the general population. Women with acne vulgaris are more frequently affected by FMS. FMS was found to be associated with the severity of acne, and overweight.