Increased risk of optic neuritis in patients with Fibromyalgia: nationwide population-based cohort study in South Korea, 2023

Abstract
Purpose
To estimate the risk of incidence of optic neuritis and identify the high-risk group among patients with fibromyalgia (FM)
Design
Population-based cohort study
Methods
A nationwide, population-based study was conducted using data from the Korean National Health Claims database from 2012 to 2021. This study included all the patients with FM from the entire South Korean population aged 20–79 years (FM group). Moreover, those with pain but not diagnosed with FM were considered as the non-FM group. A cohort was established by classifying it into the FM and non-FM groups during the recruitment period. A log-rank analysis was used to compare the risk of optic neuritis incidence between the FM group and non-FM group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to calculate the adjusted hazard ratio (HR). The cohort was analyzed by stratifying according to the age and sex.
Results
The FM and non-FM groups included 479,892 and 479,892 participants, respectively. The incidence rate of optic neuritis was 35.65/100000 person-years in the FM group; the HR was significantly higher in the FM group than in the non-FM group (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.84–2.41; p < 0.001). The mean interval between the onset of FM and incident optic neuritis was 2.4 ± 1.8 years. The risk increased significantly in men between 60-79 years age group (HR, 3.37; 95% CI, 2.54–4.48) and in women between 20-39 years age group (HR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.38–3.22).
Conclusion
We quantified the risk of optic neuritis through a long-term follow-up, which could contribute to understanding the pathophysiology and estimating the general healthcare burden associated with FM in a practical setting. Great attention should be paid to its risk in older men and younger women.

paywalled
https://www.ajo.com/article/S0002-9394(23)00343-4/fulltext

 

Oh no I have a fibro diagnosis thrown on top the ME and lots of eye pain, I guess this is a doomey paper for people in my boat?