Investigation of Anxiety and Depression in Female Patients with Fibromyalgia on MR Images: A cross-sectional cohort study

Background High rates of depression and anxiety have been reported in patients with fibromiyalgia (FM). Therefore, the aim of our study was to determine the volume of the amygdala, medial frontal cortex, limbic system and hippocampus in participants with anxiety and depression and to compare the fibromyalgia and control groups by determining the afferent and efferent fibers of the amygdala, which play an important role in anxiety and depression, which will be the first in the literature. Methods Only female subjects, 30 with fibromyalgia and 30 controls, were included in this study. Visual analog scale was used for pain sensation, BECK depression inventory, Hospital anxiety and depression scale were used for anxiety and depression. From brain diffusion MR images, tractography of the targeted pathway was calculated in DSI Studio software and the volume of targeted structures was calculated in VolBrain software program. Results The total volume of the medial frontal cortex, amygdala, limbic cortex and hippocampus was found to be statistically significant higher in the control group than in the fibromyalgia group (p < 0.05). It was also found statistically significant (p < 0.05) that the total number of fibers on the right side of the amygdala was higher in the patient group (13710.60 ± 4926.09) than in the control group (13099.14 ± 3677.12), but the number of fibers on the left side was higher in the control group (4057.37 ± 1388.57) than in the patient group (3552.70 ± 1493.35). Conclusions It is observed that depression and anxiety in fibromyalgia patients affect both white matter and gray matter volume in the central nervous system. Therefore, we believe that treatments on the central nervous system may be more effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression disorders in patients with fibromyalgia.