What Is FybroMyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a complex disease, characterized by the existence of chronic diffuse pain throughout the body with pain found at the pressure of certain points of the body. It is also accompanied by various manifestations such as sleep disorders, fatigue and, in almost a third of cases, anxiety and mood disorders. It is an entity still poorly characterized due to the imprecision of the diagnostic criteria and it is always a diagnosis of elimination, that is to say that the doctors retain it once they have eliminated other diseases causing diffuse chronic pain.

Several factors are likely to trigger fibromyalgia such as genetic susceptibility, psychological vulnerability, disorders of the metabolism of serotonin or even infection, muscular microtrauma, trauma to the neck, emotional events (divorce, death, etc.). Other factors will become entangled and maintain this painful state, in particular sleep disturbances, muscle deconditioning (by reduction of physical activity), the pessimism linked to this situation with the fear of having a serious illness or professional difficulties.

Fibromyalgia symptoms

Fibromyalgia is mainly characterized by muscle and tendon pain along the spine, fatigue and sleep disorders. “Sleep disorders are found in the majority of cases, without being able to clearly determine whether they are a cause or a consequence of the disease. Often not expressed because formerly, sleep disorders are, without doubt, a central point. in fibromyalgia.

These symptoms can be accompanied by dozens of different manifestations:

Restless Legs;
Headache;
Irritable bowel;
Dysmenorrhoea;
Tinnitus;
Allergy;
Anxiety;
Hypersensitivity;

Diagnostic

New Diagnostic Criteria (2010)

New diagnostic criteria were published in 2010 by a US task force. These new criteria are based on an interrogation of patients whose purpose is to grasp on a scale the pains in 19 defined bread-indexes. According to a similar principle, the other complaints are included in the symptom severity scale score.

The evolution of pain and other complaints can be accurately followed by repeated interrogations over months and years. This is all the more important as fibromyalgia is a slow and discreet progression.

The Old Diagnostic Criteria (1990)

Apart from that, the pain sensitivity of certain tender points, as defined by the American College of Rheumatology in 1990 for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia, is still being measured. These points are mostly at the insertions of the muscular tendons and are distinguished by an increased sensitivity to pain.

The future will tell if these new diagnostic criteria will be needed to replace the old ones.

Laboratory tests are also performed to exclude other causes of illness (eg, thyroid insufficiency or bacterial or viral infection) and inflammatory or degenerative forms of rheumatism (such as arthritis or osteoarthritis).

Treatment

Although fibromyalgia is considered incurable, it is quite possible to relieve chronic pain and treat other disorders with some success. The recommendations of the European League against Rheumatism and the American Society of Pain advocate an interdisciplinary program combining three forms of therapy:

physical activity and sports training
psychological and psychosomatic treatment
medical treatment

Fibromyalgia tends to be chronic, but can resolve itself if stress is reduced. Even with proper treatment, most people continue to experience symptoms to some degree.

Psychiatric disorders are common during fibromyalgia and many doctors see fibromyalgia as the somatic expression of depression. In addition, several biochemical abnormalities (serotonin, norepinephrine) are common to fibromyalgia and to severe forms of depression.

In fact, the psychological profile of these patients would be closer to anxiety neuroses. Different studies have been carried out with specialized questionnaires and arrive at contradictory results. The numerous methodological problems of these studies make it impossible to conclude with certainty on the real links between fibromyalgia and depression and that it is not known which of the two affections is at the origin of the other.

But, among the treatments that are effective in fibromyalgia, there are different antidepressants that work on pain and recovery of activity while they do not fundamentally change the mood of patients.

All of the learned societies therefore agree that the various fibromyalgia problems are absolutely not due to a psychiatric cause, even if the frequent anxo-depressive disorders can worsen the pains and the functional repercussions of these pains.