Fibromyalgia May Increase the Risk of Premature Death
Early death, particularly from suicide, is more common among people with fibromyalgia, a new study suggests.
People with fibromyalgia may be more likely to die prematurely than individuals who don’t have this condition, which typically causes chronic issues with pain, fatigue, sleep, and mood.
Overall, fibromyalgia is associated with a 27 percent higher risk of premature death from all causes, according to a new meta-analysis of fibromyalgia and mortality research published July 10 in the journal RMD Open. In particular, people with fibromyalgia are more than three times more likely to die by suicide, this new analysis found. Fibromyalgia is also linked to an increased risk of premature death from accidents and infections.
“With respect to suicide, there is more mental illness in those with fibromyalgia,” says Frederick Wolfe, MD, a codirector of the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases and a clinical professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita, who wasn’t involved in the new analysis. “Accidents are thought by some to be a euphemism to avoid saying suicide,” Dr. Wolfe says.
About four million adults nationwide have fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain all over the body and can also lead to sleep problems, fatigue, and emotional and mental distress, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Women are twice as likely to get it as men, and it is often diagnosed when people are middle-aged, the CDC notes.
While the exact causes of fibromyalgia are unclear, risk factors for this condition include:
People living with fibromyalgia can have more disability and a lower quality of life, according to the CDC. They’re also more than twice as likely to be hospitalized and more than three times more likely to experience major depressive disorder. According to the CDC, fibromyalgia is also associated with an increased risk of premature death from accidents and suicide.
For the new analysis of fibromyalgia and mortality, researchers examined data from six previously published studies with a total of more than 188,000 participants. These were all observational studies, not controlled experiments designed to prove whether or how fibromyalgia might directly shorten longevity. A coauthor of the new analysis, Yulia Treister-Goltzman, PhD, of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
One limitation of the new analysis is that the smaller studies included a variety of different definitions of fibromyalgia. Another drawback is that most of the fibromyalgia participants in these smaller studies also had a wide range of other medical conditions that might independently influence their odds of premature death.
If people with other chronic health issues are more apt to get a fibromyalgia diagnosis, then it’s possible that the increased risk of mortality associated with fibromyalgia in the new analysis is in fact being driven by other underlying health issues and not by fibromyalgia itself, Wolfe says.
It’s also possible that the risk of premature death associated with fibromyalgia varies depending on the type of treatments people receive, says Kaleb Michaud, PhD, a professor of rheumatology and immunology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha who wasn’t involved in the new analysis.
"Many patients seeking care for their fibromyalgia reach a variety of roadblocks that only add to their health burdens,” Dr. Michaud says. “I also wonder if the mortality risk may be changing over time due to changes in diagnosis and treatment.”
The good news, though, is that life — and longevity — with fibromyalgia can be improved with appropriate treatment, including both medication nonpharmacological approaches like exercise and plenty of sleep at night, Michaud adds.
“Finding a care team willing and able to help with these treatments may be the first step,” Michaud says. “The second step is acknowledging that there may be serious consequences for not being proactive in care, as this new analysis highlights.”
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