What is Fibromyalgia?

For years, those who suffered from fibromyalgia through that it was all in their heads. As more and more sufferers were identified, the medical community investigated what was going on.

What we now call fibromyalgia used to be referred to as fibrositis. It is a chronic disorder that involves several tender pressure points and pain throughout the body. What is uncommon about fibromyalgia is that the points of pain are hypersensitive to the touch— pain wouldn’t be felt under normal circumstances. The widespread pain affects the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the body.

Doctors had a difficult time diagnosing fibromyalgia. The symptoms of the condition could be attributed to other disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and hypothyroidism. Sufferers endured many tests without a definitive answer for their symptoms. The pain that spreads throughout their bodies is not accompanied by any telltale tissue changes like inflammation or deformity in the joints.

Fibromyalgia is not a progressive condition. That is a source of hope because the condition will not get worse as time goes by. Unfortunately, for those who experience more severe symptoms, the pain doesn’t decrease either. The pain doesn’t totally go away, but it can be managed through a variety of treatments.

Despite all of the tests, there is not a single protocol for diagnosing the condition. Those who develop fibromyalgia still undergo their share of blood tests and x-rays before the symptoms and length of time with the condition leads to fibromyalgia as a possible answer. Before fibromyalgia can be decided, other mimicking diseases or disorders have to be ruled out.

Once fibromyalgia is a viable answer, doctors do have a couple of guidelines they can employ. All doctors don’t subscribe to these guidelines but nevertheless, they give them a place to begin. Basically, if a person exhibits pain in 11 or 18 tender points and experiences sustained pain for at least three months, it’s considered an indication that the patient has developed fibromyalgia. Doctors disagree when they believe patient’s suffer from the condition but display less than 11 points of tenderness.

Even with the returned diagnosis of fibromyalgia, patients had nowhere to turn for treatment in the conventional sense. Since there were no signs other than what was felt by the sufferer, doctors didn’t know how to go about treating the condition. So patients were given medications to lessen the intensity of the symptoms. NSAIDs, naproxen sodium, and acetaminophen helped with the pain. And, the conditions caused by fibromyalgia, like depression, had to be dealt with as well.

Fibromyalgia has come a long way from being thought a psychological issue. Scientists have been working to find answers for sufferers. They have found treatments both conventional and non-conventional to assist with the pain of fibromyalgia.