Estilos de apego adulto en pacientes americanos y españoles con fibromialgia y artritis reumatoide: un estudio transversal

Research in the Spanish population has shown that adult attachment styles differ from traditional Anglo-Saxon literature, particularly in the fearful insecure group. Despite current prolific work on insecure attachment and its influence on disease and health, adult attachment in its Spanish distinctions has not yet been explored in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To this end, a cross-sectional study was conducted with Spanish and American patients to explore the relationship between attachment and chronic pain, according to the diagnostic criteria of the American College of Rheumatology of 2010. Our objective was to describe the sample by defining pain and its experience, and adult attachment styles. The FM sample showed greater intensity and pain interference than the RA sample. There was a clear association between having insecure attachment and being sick, particularly in the Barcelona sample, but no significant differences were found in secure or insecure attachment and suffering from either disease. Exploratory analyses of attachment styles in the Spanish sample showed that there were clear differences in pain interference. The New York sample showed no differences in attachment style groups. The Spanish attachment questionnaire highlighted some relationships, but the American questionnaires did not obtain differences between the two medical conditions. Insecure attachment was remarkably associated with FM or RA, especially in Barcelona. Attachment predicted both pain results in FM, while in RA a trend was observed in terms of pain severity. Our findings revealed that research should be advanced to broaden the understanding of how attachment influences these two chronic pain diseases in their current conception.