title: Can health care providers recognise a fibromyalgia personality?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if experienced health care providers (HCPs) can recognise patients with fibromyalgia (FM) based on a limited set of personality items, exploring the existence of a FM personality.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the 240-item NEO-PI-R personality questionnaire, 8 HCPs from two different countries each selected 20 items they considered most discriminative of FM personality. Then, evaluating the scores on these items of 129 female patients with FM and 127 female controls, each HCP rated the probability of FM for each individual on a 0-10 scale. Personality characteristics (domains and facets) of selected items were determined. Scores of patients with FM and controls on the eight 20-item sets, and HCPs' estimates of each individual's probability of FM were analysed for their discriminative value.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The eight 20-item sets discriminated for FM, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve ranging from 0.71-0.81. The estimated probabilities for FM showed, in general, percentages of correct classifications above 50%, with rising correct percentages for higher estimated probabilities. The most often chosen and discriminatory items were predominantly of the domain neuroticism (all with higher scores in FM), followed by some items of the facet trust (lower scores in FM).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HCPs can, based on a limited set of items from a personality questionnaire, distinguish patients with FM from controls with a statistically significant probability. The HCPs' expectation that personality in FM patients is associated with higher levels for aspects of neuroticism (proneness to psychological distress) and lower scores for aspects of trust, proved to be correct.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: José A P
authors.initials: JAP
authors.lastname: Da Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.w.g.jacobs@umcutrecht.nl.
authors.forename: Johannes W G
authors.initials: JWG
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, CEDOC, NOVA Medical School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Jaime C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Branco
authors.affiliation: CIIS, Institute of Health Sciences, Portuguese Catholic University, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Canaipa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: M Filomena
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Antonius Hospital, Sneek, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ed N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Griep
authors.affiliation: Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Toon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: van Helmond
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lusíada University of North, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Paula J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Isala, Zwolle, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Theo J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Zijlstra
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rinie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Geenen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000523:psychology*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D011584:Psychology; D000072140:Rheumatologists; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires