Craniofacial Laterality Discrimination and Psychological Factors in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a multidimensional chronic pain condition associated with alterations in sensorimotor processing, body perception, and psychological functioning. Although laterality discrimination impairments have been described for the limbs, evidence regarding craniofacial regions remains limited. This study compared mandibular and lingual laterality discrimination, body esteem, state anxiety, and kinesiophobia between women with FM and healthy controls and examined their associations with clinical variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study included 60 women, 30 with FM and 30 healthy controls. Mandibular and lingual laterality discrimination were assessed using a digital image-recognition task that recorded accuracy and reaction time. Body esteem, state anxiety, kinesiophobia, pain intensity, and FM impact were also evaluated. Between-group comparisons and correlation analyses were performed. Results: In unadjusted analyses, women with FM showed lower mandibular laterality accuracy and longer reaction times during the lingual task; however, these differences did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Women with FM showed significantly higher state anxiety and kinesiophobia and lower body esteem than healthy controls, with these differences remaining significant after multiplicity adjustment. Conclusions: Women with FM showed marked psychological and body-related differences compared with healthy controls. Between-group differences in craniofacial laterality outcomes were observed in unadjusted analyses, although they did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons.