Poor sleep quality burdens patients with juvenile fibromyalgia syndrome

Patients with juvenile fibromyalgia syndrome (JFS) often complain of sleep problems, which have a significant impact on clinical domains of the disease, including depression and pain, reports a study.

A team of investigators conducted this cross-sectional study on consecutive patients with JFS who performed full-night polysomnography (PSG). They then assessed JFS-related symptoms, sleep quality, and neuropsychiatric features using self-report measures. PSG sleep parameters, including N3 distribution index, were gathered from both patients and age-matched healthy control participants.

Twenty-five patients (median age 15.7 years, 20 females) were included in the study. Of these, 22 (88 percent) reported nonrestorative sleep. Compared with healthy controls, patients with JFS exhibited markedly longer sleep period time (p=0.004) and increased wake after sleep onset (p=0.03). In addition, the N3 distribution index was significantly lower in patients than in controls (p=0.02).

Subjective poor sleep quality correlated with Widespread Pain Index (WPI; r_s −0.65), Symptom Severity Scale (r_s −0.64), depressive symptoms (r_s −0.58), fatigue (r_s −0.44), and symptom severity upon awakening (r_s −0.65). The N3 distribution index was associated with depressive symptoms (r_s 0.41) and irritability (r_s 0.40).

Multiple regression analysis revealed that subjective sleep quality (β −0.32; p=0.04) predicted WPI, while subjective sleep measures (β −0.32; p=0.04) and PSG parameters (N3 min: (β −0.07; p=0.03) predicted depressive symptoms.

“Sleep complaints are a key hallmark of JFS and have significant effect on relevant clinical domains of the disease, such as pain and depression,” the investigators said.