Saturday, July 2, 2011

Is There a Real Disease Called Fibromyalgia?

By David Lawrence, MD


Fibromyalgia is a label that is ascribed to a large number of patients who describe chronic pain. Some of these patients have distinct tender points around their body, while others don't have this at all but describe more of a diffuse pain that really isn't specific to one particular anatomical region.

Fibromyalgia is not a distinct condition with a single pain generating mechanism. It is a common complicated condition that is characterized by a heightened pain perception with a number of precipitating factors. What is often seen is a wide variety of presenting complaints, such as headaches, shooting pains in the extremities, irritable bowel syndrome, generalized aching, and other endocrine problems.

The specific cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. Professors, researchers, and clinicians do not understand why patients end up with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. A significant amount of the time patients present with restless leg syndrome, disturbed sleep patterns, mineral and vitamin deficiencies, but no established cause can be figured out.

Some literature has displayed a relationship between fibromyalgia and pre-adolescent sexual abuse. Pre-adolescent sexual abuse can end up with a patient having problems of chronic migraines, fibromyalgia, hypertension, and potentially autoimmune diseases. During the evaluation of the patient, this should be asked.

Since fibromyalgia's cause is not known, we can't say that depression causes it, but it is often seen along with fibromyalgia. Multiple antidepressants have been shown to work well for fibromyalgia so it is known that depression is a common comorbidity. These include tricyclic antidepressants along with some others.

Fibromyalgia is a very frustrating disease. It presents with a constellation of symptoms that do not have a single cause and for which we do not understand how the disease comes about. We do know that there is often times mental health comorbidities. Fortunately in the current medical treatment era, there are numerous medications that have been shown to help dramatically with patients symptoms of fibromyalgia. Some of these are FDA approved, while others are not but still work exceptionally well for the condition. These medications include duloxetine, tricyclic antidepressants, tramadol, milnacipran, and pregabalin. Opioid medications are currently falling out of favor for fibromyalgia due to their ineffectiveness and multiple side effects.




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