An investigation of the relationship between social media use, pain catastrophizing, and symptom severity in fibromyalgia patients

The effects of social media use on disease outcomes in patients with fibromyalgia, as well as the role of pain catastrophizing in this context, remain unclear. We examined the relationships among social media use, social media addiction, symptom severity, and pain catastrophizing in patients with fibromyalgia. This study included 100 patients with fibromyalgia. The duration of social media use was recorded. The Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire was used to assess disease severity, the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to evaluate pain, the Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form to assess social media addiction, and the pain catastrophizing questionnaire to measure pain catastrophizing. No significant relationships were found between social media addiction and fibromyalgia severity, VAS score, total pain catastrophizing, or its subdomains. Similarly, no significant correlations were observed between the duration of social media use and fibromyalgia severity, VAS score, total pain catastrophizing, or its subdomains. However, the duration of social media use was significantly positively correlated with social media addiction. Pain catastrophizing total and subdomain scores were significantly positively correlated with both VAS scores and fibromyalgia severity. Multiple linear regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, and pain demonstrated that neither the duration of social media use nor the severity of social media addiction significantly predicted fibromyalgia severity or pain catastrophizing. In conclusion, this study found a significant association between fibromyalgia severity and pain catastrophizing, whereas social media use had no significant effect on these outcomes. This finding highlights the importance of addressing pain catastrophizing in the management of patients with fibromyalgia.