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INTRODUCTION: In addition to coping strategies, social comparison may play a role in illness adjustment. However, little is known about the role of contrast and identification in social comparison in adaptation to fibromyalgia. AIM: To evaluate through a path analysis in a sample of fibromyalgia patients, the association between identification and contrast in social comparison, catastrophising and specific health outcomes (fibromyalgia illness impact and psychological distress). MATERIAL AND METHOD: 131 Spanish fibromyalgia outpatients (mean age: 50.15, SD = 11.1) filled out a questionnaire. RESULTS: We present a model that explained 33% of the variance in catastrophising by direct effects of more use of upward contrast and downward identification. In addition, 35% of fibromyalgia illness impact variance was explained by less upward identification, more upward contrast and more catastrophising and 42% of the variance in psychological distress by a direct effect of more use of upward contrast together with higher fibromyalgia illness impact. DISCUSSION: We suggest that intervention programmes with chronic pain and fibromyalgia patients should focus on enhancing the use of upward identification in social comparison, and on minimising the use of upward contrast and downward identification in social comparison.

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Hemos analizado las propiedades psicométricas del HAD (Hospital Anxiety and Depresión Scale; Zigmod & Snaith, 1983) en población española sana. Participaron 379 estudiantes y 182 personas adultas. Utilizamos la Escala de Depresión (Self-Ratting Depresión Scale, SDS; Zung, 1965), el Inventario de Respuestas de Ansiedad Estado-Rasgo (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene 1970), el Inventario de Situaciones y Respuestas de Ansiedad (IISRA; Miguel Tobal & Cano Vindel, 1988) y la escala hospitalaria de Ansiedad y Depresión (HAD; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983. Los resultados muestran índices de consistencia de las subescalas de ansiedad y depresión con el resto de intrumentos para la escala total del HAZ en adultos (>=80. Se precisa evaluar el distrés psicológico global del HAZ en muestra española

The psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depresión Scale (HAD; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983 have been analysed in a Spanish healthy group. Sample was composed of 379 students and 182 adults. The following assessment instruments were used; Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS; Zung, 1965, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene 1970), Inventory of Situation and Responses of Anxiety (ISRA; Miguel-Tobal & Cano Vindel, 1988) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983. Results show an optimal internal consistency and test-retest reliability (>=.70). The validity with other anxiety and depression subscales shows a good correlation. Sensibility and specificity are satisfactory when using the HAD total scale for adults (>=.80) More research is needed with respect to the HAD´s global psychological distress scale in different Spanish samples

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