Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology, Critical and Care Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy.
Rheumatology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy.
Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2021 May-Jun;39 Suppl 130(3):174-185. doi: 10.55563/clinexprheumatol/73g6np. Epub 2020 Dec 2.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is highly prevalent in the female gender. Scarce attention has been given to the exploration and description of this syndrome, from a psychological point of view, when occurring in males. The aim of the present study is to develop further knowledge, and to summarise the literature regarding subjective psychological experience, characteristics of symptoms presentation (both onset and development), and treatment options for FM in male patients, in order to highlight differences with FM in females.
All studies published between January 1993 and February 2020 using PubMed and PsycInfo were included, provided that they met the following criteria: 1) written in English; 2) original articles on studies with a longitudinal design; 3) prospective or retrospective, observational (analytical or descriptive), experimental or quasi-experimental, controlled or non-controlled studies. Reviews and non-original articles (i.e. editorials, letters to the editor, and book chapters) were not included. We utilised the following keywords: (male), (female), (fibromyalgia), combined with Boolean operators 'AND' and 'NOT'.
We found an initial number of 55 papers. Duplicated records were excluded (n=13), as well as papers not focusing on male patients or not fulfilling the inclusion criteria (n=25), thus narrowing the research to 17 papers.
FM male patients consider their masculine identity as inefficiently re-negotiated after the onset of symptoms. FM males tend to endure pain for longer periods of time than females before seeking treatment; bodily symptoms are prevalent with a compromised exploration of feelings about FM. Unfortunately, there is still a paucity of evidence on clinical characterisation and treatment options when FM occurs in males. Moreover, no studies have addressed the issue of the psychopharmacological/non-pharmacological management of males with FM and comorbid psychiatric syndromes.
纤维肌痛（FM）在女性中高发。然而，男性患者中出现这种综合征时，从心理学角度对其进行探索和描述却很少受到关注。本研究旨在进一步了解和总结男性 FM 患者的主观心理体验、症状表现（发病和发展）特征以及治疗选择的文献，以突出与女性 FM 的差异。
纳入了 1993 年 1 月至 2020 年 2 月期间在 PubMed 和 PsycInfo 上发表的所有研究，符合以下标准：1）用英文书写；2）关于具有纵向设计的研究的原始文章；3）前瞻性或回顾性、观察性（分析或描述性）、实验或准实验、对照或非对照研究。综述和非原始文章（即社论、给编辑的信和书的章节）不包括在内。我们使用了以下关键字：（男性）、（女性）、（纤维肌痛），并结合了布尔运算符“AND”和“NOT”。
我们最初发现了 55 篇论文。排除了重复记录（n=13），以及不关注男性患者或不符合纳入标准的论文（n=25），因此将研究范围缩小到 17 篇论文。
FM 男性患者认为他们的男性身份在发病后无法有效地重新协商。FM 男性在寻求治疗之前往往会比女性忍受更长时间的疼痛；身体症状普遍存在，对 FM 的感受探索不足。不幸的是，当 FM 发生在男性时，关于临床特征和治疗选择的证据仍然很少。此外，没有研究涉及 FM 男性患者和共病精神综合征的精神药理学/非药理学管理问题。
