Fibromyalgia (cont.)
What are symptoms of fibromyalgia?
The universal symptom of fibromyalgia is pain. As mentioned earlier, the pain in fibromyalgia is not caused by tissue inflammation. Instead, these patients seem to 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 individuals can cause disabling, sometimes severe pain in patients with fibromyalgia. The body pain of fibromyalgia can be aggravated by noise, weather change, and emotional stress.
The pain of fibromyalgia is generally widespread, involving both sides of the body. Pain
usually affects the neck, buttocks, shoulders, arms, the upper back, and the chest. "Tender points" are localized tender areas of the body that can bring on widespread pain and muscle spasm when touched. Tender points, or pressure points, are commonly found around the elbows, shoulders, knees, hips, back of the head, and the sides of
the breastbone.
Fatigue occurs in 90% of patients. Fatigue may be
related to abnormal sleep patterns commonly observed in these patients.
Normally, there are several levels of depth of sleep. Getting enough of
the deeper levels of sleep may be more important in refreshing a person
than the total number of hours of sleep. Patients with fibromyalgia lack
the deep, restorative level of sleep, called "non-rapid-eye-movement" (non-REM) sleep. Consequently, patients with fibromyalgia often
awaken in the morning without feeling fully rested. Some patients awaken
with muscle aches or a sensation of muscle fatigue as if they had been
"working out" all night!
Mental and/or emotional disturbances occur in over half of people with fibromyalgia. These
symptoms include poor concentration, forgetfulness, mood changes, irritability,
depression, and anxiety. Since a firm
diagnosis of fibromyalgia is difficult, and no confirmatory laboratory tests
are available, patients with fibromyalgia are often misdiagnosed as
having depression as their primary underlying problem.
Other symptoms of fibromyalgia include migraine and tension headaches, numbness or tingling of
different parts of the body, abdominal pain related to irritable bowel syndrome
("spastic colon"), and irritable bladder, causing painful and frequent
urination. Like fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome can cause chronic
abdominal pain and other bowel disturbances without detectable inflammation of
the stomach or the intestines.
Each patient with fibromyalgia is unique. Any of the above
symptoms can occur intermittently and in different combinations.
Next: How is fibromyalgia diagnosed? »
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