Central sensitization in psoriatic arthritis: relationship with composite measures of disease activity, functional disability and health-related quality of life

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of central sensitization (CS) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and its association with disease activity and patient-reported outcome measures. Methods: This cross-sectional study included PsA adults without a coexisting fibromyalgia (FM). Patients underwent a clinimetric assessment to collect variables regarding disease activity, quality of life (QoL), functional ability, impact of disease, and CS. Spearman's rho was used to examine the relationship between CS Inventory (CSI) scores and other variables. A multivariate analysis was performed to determine the independent contribution of each variable to the PsAID-12 score. Results: 157 patients were enrolled. The 45.2% scored a CSI ≥40, indicating a high probability of CS. Significant correlations were found between CSI and disease activity, as evaluated by DAPSA and PASDAS (rho = 0.587 and rho = 0.573, respectively), between CSI and HAQ (rho = 0.607), and between CSI and SF36-PCS and SF-36-MCS (rho = 0.405 and rho = 0.483, respectively). In multivariate analysis, CSI score was the principal independent variable (p = 0.0001) contributing to PsAID-12 score. Conclusion: PsA patients with symptoms of CS had higher disease activity, worse functional ability and quality of life. The presence of CS is the major contributor in the impact of disease.