Background Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome in which “pain” is not a single factor in illness. Patients have physical and psychological changes that affect the ability to cope with the disease.

Objectives To identify personality traits of patients with fibromyalgia using the Pfister Colored Pyramid (TPC) that may be related to coping.

Methods The projective test TPC, presents results not having the patient to become aware of what is the answer. It uses 3 cards on paper containing the drawing of a pyramid, divided into 15 spaces to be filled with colored papers, distributed in 24 shades. We evaluated 99 women classified to have fibromyalgia by the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology and 49 women that were not patients.

Results Descriptive analysis of the variables of TPC: methodical execution (rigidity); ascendant setting (thought organization); construction of the formal aspect (adaptation and coping), colors (emotional balance) and chromatic formula (opening to stimuli) shows that the differences are not significant between the two groups (p> 0.05), demonstrating that there is not a specific trait of personality for patients with fibromyalgia. The correlation is not significant for the TPC and the time of diagnosis and neither for pain (assessed by visual analogue scale) with p> 0.05. The result shows that the groups did not differ in their personality traits, according to the analyzes of the TPC, this demonstrates that patients do not have a specific personality that lead them to develop the framework of intense and chronic pain, so the nociceptive mechanism of pain and ability to cope with the disease aren’t linked to personality.

Conclusions Personality traits of patients with fibromyalgia, demonstrated by the TPC, do not explain the difficulties of coping with disease and pain within the patient with fibromyalgia.

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Villemor-Amaral, Anna Elisa; Farah, Flávia Helena Zanetti; Primi, Ricardo. O teste das pirâmides coloridas e o transtorno do pânico. Psicologia em Estudo, Maringá, v. 9, n. 2, p. 301-307, mai./ago. 2004.

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Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles MA, Goldenberg DL, Katz RS, Mease P, Russell AS, Russell IJ, Winfield JB e Yunus MB. The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity. Arthritis Care & Research. 2010; 62(5). DOI 10.1002/acr.20140.

Disclosure of Interest None Declared