Here we go again with so-called “medical professionals” questioning the validity of Fibromyalgia. Everytime I read this stuff I get so angry! An article in The New York Times posted today discusses how some doctors feel that people taking Lyrica for Fibromyalgia are taking prescription medication and it is not necessary.
The article says:
“Some doctors, including the doctor who wrote the 1990 paper that defined Fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.”
Advocacy groups and Fibromyalgia doctors estimate that anywhere from 2% – 4% of the adult population suffers from Fibromyalgia (as many as 10 million people). The doctors who dispute these statistics say that:
“…diagnosing the condition actually worsens suffering by causing patients to obsess over aches that other people simply tolerate. Further, they warn that Lyricas side effects, which include severe weight gain, dizziness and edema, are very real, even if Fibromyalgia is not.”
Doctors who do recognize Fibromyalgia as the real illness that it is say that drugs like Lyrica for Fibromyalgia will be like the discovery of antidepressants for depression. It is a huge thing and two more drug companies are working to get prescriptions FDA approved this year to treat FM.
I agree that the FDA approving Lyrica is a huge thing because it opens the door for other drugs.
I, for one, am not getting any better on Lyrica, so will be discontinuing using it. *sigh*
First of all, if your medical doctor does not recognize fibromyalgia, I would suggest to switch doctors because fibromyalgia is very real! I have had a few patients try Lyrica for fibromyalgia without any improvement in their pain levels however, for most fibro sufferers, it is worth trying. Just be cautious of Lyrica’s side effects.
Dr. Mike
http://www.fibromyalgiafacts.net
I was very angry when I read this on a news related website. It’s been such a struggle for sufferers to get taken seriously, this article reinforces the non-believer doctor, and lay people beliefs. I can imagine how many sufferers who have non supportive relatives/friends/spouses who will point this article to them and say “see, it’s all in your head”.
I have lived with my wife’s fibromyalgia. Her pains are in specific points of her body and they are constant. Her tolerance to pain has diminished to a minimum. It takes amazing will power for her to get up in the morning. Her immune system is shot. She manages the pain as well as she could with exercises that her doctors recommend.
I have witnessed her physical deterioration over the last decade and because there is no forseeable cure for this syndrome, depression soon followed.
There are a number of fibromyalgia sufferers who have gotten together to give each other support. Now, the doctor who says that fibromyalgia is a myth would see that group as a bunch of people reinforcing each other’s delusion about an imagined disease. Sort of like a mass hysteria.
It’s not as though they all experienced alien abduction and lived to tell the tale.
Fibromyalgia is as real as it is relatively new. Just because he can’t determine its cause doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
My own suspicion is that fibromyalgia afflict mostly women who are more likely exposed to chemicals in household products — aerosols, cleaner solutions and the like — when they are their home chores. We don’t know the effects of these new chemicals that have only been with us in the last five decades.
We’re going to ask her doctor about Lyrica.
-Tom
Hi Tom! Thanks for stopping by. I’m sorry to hear about your wife’s struggles with FM. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Syndrome is common among women with FM and CFS.
I hope you find some great help and that Lyrica works for her if you go that route.
I think the doctor that is NOW denying that FMS or its symptoms are real is truly just upset over the fact that he isnt making any profit from it.
I would LOVE for him to come live 1 day in my shoes and then tell me its all in my head…
what is this doctors name? does anyone even know who he is? obviously no recognition is headed his way and when your an “unrecognized doctor” who supposedly made a historical (for lack of a better word) medical decision and then denies its existance, is no real “good” doctor…I think its all in HIS head… its called a bloated EGO with a bitter attitude…soon there will be evidence and medical tests that PROVE FMS and its sypmtoms are real (they are working on it)…just think…he wont be recognized for that either…except for maybe a laugh or two because of the HUGE error he made…a doctor? i think NOT! doctors do not just dismiss their patients symptoms regardless of what they are or why they exist…
I have had Fibromyalgia for 11yrs now. I was in a bus accident (I was the driver and was hit head on). I felt immediate pain in my arms and legs as I stiffened up for the impact. However, I continued my bus run at the insistance of my boss because there was no other driver to relieve me. God knows how I managed it. The next day I was in excruciating pain but it radiated from my arms and legs to from under my shoulder blades to the bottom of my feet. Honestly the only thing that didn’t hurt was my head…my neck started hurting the following day. I, as many others I’m sure, was told the pain was “all in my head”. It wasn’t until I saw a neurologist that the first suggestion of Fibromyalgia was noted. The compensation doctor dismissed the diagnosis but noted after 4 months that maybe my pain was real and should have something to relieve it. Imagine…4 months of pain being told is in your head and only Tylenol to try to relieve it (which didn’t even try to help). I went downhill fast…within the following 6 months I was no longer able to work because I didn’t have my pain under control. My doctor finally put me on Vicodin and Oxycontin. I am still on it 11 yrs later but I can truthfully say that I am not addicted to it. Like I tell my doctor, It’s hard to be addicted to something that doesn’t totally work. I am grateful for the little bit of relief I do get from the 2 meds. I can get to the grocery store, doctor’s appointments and church. If I don’t take them…I end up in a “flare” that lasts anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. Keeping the pain at the level it’s at now is a necessity. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worse my pain stays at a 6.5-7 now. I started taking Lyrica in January 2008. I am on 150 mg a day. Unfortunately…it is not helping me. I thought if I gave it more time it would kick in but it hasn’t . I now have to tell my doctor it’s not working and we have to try something else. I know there is no cure but people need to know that this is a very real “disease” or “disorder” whichever you want to call it and those who suffer with it are experiencing excruciating pain. Look at it like this. Take a woman in the last stages of labor just before the baby is born. Take that pain (those who go through natural childbirth) and multiply it by 10,000. That is the level of pain that I myself am in. Without my pain meds i’m at that x10,000 stage. On my medication I’m at maybe x 6,000 stage. Thank you for allowing me to get my own story out there. Maybe there are others whose pain level is at the same stage mine is. I cannot work because I go through pain 24/7/365 and never know when it’s going to get worse or which area will be affected day by day. Who can hire me?? I’d constantly be leaving work because of the pain. From the pain I’ve also gotten some kind of sleep disorder because the pain keeps me awake now. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since Christmas. Honestly. I get an hour here and an hour there. I usually manage 4 hours total throughout the day. I have been in a total flare for 2 1/2 weeks now since seeing a chirpractor my pastor insisted that I see because she believes he can “cure” me of my pain. The only thing he has done is increase the pain I’m in. Then I hear “it’s going to get worse before it gets better”. How am I supposed to handle that?? And he wants me off my pain meds. Right…does he WANT me to go crazy with pain?? I wish someone would help me and help me make my supporters understand that it’s not a bone thing (needing chiropractic treatment) but a nerve and muscle thing. Again…thank you for allowing me to vent and tell my story.
Jacqui
Lyrica was not made for Fibro. It was made for seizures. It is not a cure for fibro. It has very serious side effects and alters the brain. I tried to keep my wife from taking it because of the side effects etc. She took it anyway and has been in a total downhill spiral. Please use this drug only as a last resort!! Mind altering chemical are dangerous!!!
I just want to say that I do think that Lyrica can be of some help but it should be used as a last resort completely. Of course FMS and CFS have made my relationship with my fiance very straining even more so that I had to leave her for 5 months with her family (who have been very good to watch over her) to finish school several states away. Since she started taking Lyrica I could see how her mood shifted and how even though it seemed to help some of the pain subside it seemed to make her go… well… crazy. I just pray that something will be noted in the medical community and done to help.