OBJECTIVE: to describe the demographic, socioeconomic and clinical characteristics of patients with Fibromyialgia Syndrome (FS) assisted at the Hospital Santo Antônio in Salvador, BA, Brazil. METHODS: a hundred and twenty patients with FS were prospectively evaluated by two rheumatologists in relation to the clinical-epidemic data and clinical manifestations. RESULTS: all the patients were female, with average age of 29.8 years. Diffuse pain was found in all patients and fatigue was found in 94.2% (n = 113). Anxiety was referred by 105 patients (87.5%) and depression by 47 (39.2%) of them. The most common tender point found was the right subocciput, reported by 40% (n = 48) of the patients and the less found was the right gluteal, in 26.7% (n = 26). The mean of the total number of tender points was 13.6 (limits from 11 to 18), being the average and the median 14. The patients' group that had the number of tender points superior or equal to the median presented, significantly, lower family income (p < 0.01), larger smoking habit (p < 0.01) and sleeping disturbances (p < 0.05) when compared to the others. CONCLUSIONS: the appraised patients presented several characteristics in common with patients of previous studies, but they differed in relation to the frequencies of total and specific tender points. We found a significant association of low family income, sleeping disturbances and smoking habit with a larger amount of tender points.
fibromyalgia; clinical characteristics; demographic characteristics; socioeconomic characteristics
