Fibromyalgia: No Longer a Catchall Diagnosis Essay

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a debilitating neurological disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and fatigue. It affects approximately 2% of the population, and is more common in women than in men. Central nervous system sensitization affects the entire body, leading to many secondary symptoms. This paper will cover the history, symptoms, and causes of FMS as well as known treatments and exercise prescription for the syndrome.

Two psychological factors associated with fibromyalgia syndrome are lowered pain threshold and increased sensitivity to painful stimuli.

Throughout history there has always been a debate on whether or not fibromyalgia is a valid health concern. Finally with today’s technology and medical research it can finally be diagnosed.Even though doctors are unable to pinpoint the root cause of these symptoms, we now know it is a valid and widespread medical condition. Fibromyalgia used to be called “muscular rheumatism.” Which is a neurobiological disorder that affects many in their daily lives. The main description of this diagnosis is chronic widespread pain, that can also disturb one's psychological state of mind. Fibromyalgia was not

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that has not been studied much in the medical field. The cause of this condition is unknown is more common in women and create a poor quality of life and disabilities due to the constant fear of having pain. Fibromyalgia has been identified as a disease that attacks the central nervous system. When attacking the nerves the patients pain pathways are firing more often than they should which creates a constant pain. One method being trialed in studies has shown an improvement in pain levels is a treatment called TENS or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. This TENS unit creates electric stimulation in patients nerves to help relieve the pain pathways that are triggered to signal the brain the body feels pain. Fibromyalgia has also been linked to other diseases like: osteo¬arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

Fibromyalgia is typically very painful and the aching beings around the neck and shoulders, eventually involving the chest, back, arms, hips, and legs. Fibromyalgia often causes the victim to be depressed, have sleeping problems, and be fatigued. Many women suffer from health complications such

It’s a life of severe chronic fatigue, pain, depression, and anxiety. Unheard of as recently as twenty years ago, fibromyalgia is now the most common diagnosis made by rheumatologists in America, affecting around 10 million people.

There are many curable disorders in the world, while others offer much complexity and have no rhyme or reason. Many of these incurable conditions include HIV, schizophrenia, cancer, and the common cold. As medicine and technology continue to evolve, so does the research for cures of these disorders. Unfortunately, fibromyalgia remains among the long list of incurable disorders.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that is characterized by a set of symptoms. These symptoms include muscle pain, joint pain, and fatigue. It can also lead to depression. Fibromyalgia has been compared to other disorders such as bursitis and tendinitis. The similarities in signs and symptoms make it a little difficult to diagnose. Women are most likely to be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It is still unknown as to why Fibromyalgia is more common in women. However, men and children are still susceptible to the disorder. The cause for Fibromyalgia is relatively unknown. However, there are indicators that my lead medical professionals to believe that certain factors can lead to Fibromyalgia. Researchers are currently undergoing tests to determine whether or not a person is predisposed with a gene that may cause Fibromyalgia. Diagnosing Fibromyalgia in patients is based strictly on the amount of pain felt by the patient. Treatment of Fibromyalgia can be difficult due to the small number of doctors who have knowledge of the condition. It is important to seek medical help from providers who have extensive knowledge of Fibromyalgia such as rheumatologist.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic pain conditions that affects the musculoskeletal. It affects at least 2% of the adult population in the United States and mainly occurs in women. Patients exhibit a variety of  symptoms including muscle pains, sleeping problems, painful, tender trigger points, fatigue and more. It's believed that the syndrome arises from stress, medical illness in a variety of pain conditions.

Ruby is a 65-year-old volunteer with Fibromyalgia. She has been working in a community centre for more than 15 years. Doing, being and becoming make her an “occupational being” (Wilcock, 1999). The only hope for Ruby to stay healthy, active and keep doing volunteering work. She has been actively engaged in a variety of occupations which provide meaning in her life. The main occupations of Ruby is central to her identity which is contributing to the life of her families, and to participate in the society. Although she is experiencing Fibromyalgia, she enjoys working. She spoke of feeling a ‘sense of accomplishment’ when she was employed and able to support her family financially. She felt missing meaning in her life without the structure of

This disease occurs when the soft muscle tissue in the neck, buttocks, shoulders, arms, upper back, chest, elbows, knees, hips, becomes inflamed and a rheumatic condition appears in the muscles. Urea and lactic acid build up in the muscle causing the muscles to become stiff and painful. The pain in fibromyalgia is not caused by tissue inflammation, instead those with Fibrositis have an increased sensitivity to many different sensory stimuli and an unusually low pain threshold. Minor sensory stimuli that ordinarily would not cause pain in normal individuals can cause disabling, severe muscle pain in people with fibromyalgia. The muscle pain of fibromyalgia can be intensified by noise, weather change and emotional

While some patients opt for surgery in order to relieve the painful symptoms of fibromyalgia, many utilize the alternative methods mentioned above. Fibromyalgia syndrome impairs the quality of life of two to four percent of the population and affects predominantly females with 9:1 female to male ratio (citation needed Whit et al. 2015). Therefore, some researchers suggest that fibromyalgia might be associated with serum testosterone levels. Patients with fibromyalgia syndrome have increased sensitization of the central nervous system and the occurrence of fibromyalgia symptoms can be detected by using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure pain associated brain activities. White et al. 2015 presented a clinical study designed to determine if testosterone had a protective effect on patients against chronic pain associated with fibromyalgia. They used pre-clinical human brain imaging data to support a causal linkage between androgens and RVM (rostral ventromedial medulla) activity in the female brainstem. When the serum

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that induces an overactive response in the nerves of the body. No one knows for sure what causes the disease to begin. There is some dispute over the validity of the illness by many doctors who believe that people use the disease to get a prescription for pain-killers, since there is no accurate way to test if a person has the disease. So those who have the condition have fought for years to encourage further research into better testing methods. The following is a list of the most common symptoms that people who have fibromyalgia must endure on a daily basis:

Fibromyalgia is hard to diagnose because there is not one definitive test that gives you a certain diagnosis (Smith, 2015). A detailed physical examination is the best way to diagnose fibromyalgia, symptoms that the patient will exhibit are chronic muscle pain, decreased pain threshold, tender points, incapacitating fatigue, insomnia, depression, and anxiety (Smith, 2015). Additionally, there are multiple symptoms if the patient is truly experiencing fibromyalgia. The blood test that helps rule out rheumatoid arthritis and lupus is FM/a blood test (Smith, 2015). After ruling out other serious disorders that have the same symptoms, the diagnosis for fibromyalgia includes pain in all four

26 year old white female post partum 2 weeks, is here for medication refill, ot establish new primary care physician. Patient reports she has history of substance abuse, Benzos, and current smoker (1/2 packs/day X 12 year). Patient denies chest pain, SOB, plapitations, N/V/D, fever. Patient reports that she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia by Grayson, will sign consent form to obtain medical records.