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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1411709
This article is part of the Research Topic The Interplay of Stress, Health, and Well-being: Unraveling the Psychological and Physiological Processes - Volume II View all 13 articles

Mood states and well-being of spouses of Fibromyalgia patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Yulia Treister-Goltzman Yulia Treister-Goltzman *Roni Peleg Roni Peleg
  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background. We carried out a systematic review of the medical literature on potential effects of caregiving on the health and well being of spouses of Fibromyalgia (FM) patients and pooled the results in a meta-analysis.Methods. The review is comprised of original studies that examined the mood states and wellbeing of husbands/wives, or long-term intimate partners, of FM patients. The authors searched the PubMed, Scopus, APA PsycNet and Web of Science databases using the key words "fibromyalgia and spouses," "fibromyalgia and partners," and "fibromyalgia and husbands." Of 570 papers that were initially identified using the search words, 18 papers were considered eligible. We used the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist (JBICAC) and Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) tools to assess the risk of bias in the analytical cross-sectional and qualitative studies respectively.. The overall score in mood states was significantly higher among spouses of FM patients than among spouses of individuals without FM (SMD [95% CI] = 0.52 [0.30; 0.74]). The strongest evidence was found for depression, SMD [95% CI] = 0.68 [0.33; 1.03]. The overall standardized score of quality of life was significantly lower among spouses of FM patients, SMD [95% CI] =-0.59 [-0.79; -0.38], with significant differences in physical function and role, emotional role, and mental health subscales.Limitation of this review is the scant number of studies that addressed several health domains, which made it impossible to carry out meta-analyses in these domains.Spouses of FM patients show the emotional and physical consequences of caregiving, and impaired quality of life. Addressing these problems can prevent deterioration of their health and improve their quality of life.

    Keywords: Fibromyalgia, Spouses, Caregivers, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, Quality of Life

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Treister-Goltzman and Peleg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yulia Treister-Goltzman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel

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