Fibromyalgia: Helping Your Patient While Maintaining Your Sanity
In caring for the patient with fibromyalgia, the primary care provider benefits from an understanding of fibromyalgia as a distinct entity. Evidence-based diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia can be used in all individuals who present with multiple site pain, fatigue, and poor sleep. Planning therapy for individuals with fibromyalgia often involves using both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment in the primary care setting.
FDA Clears Cymbalta To Treat Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the use of Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) antidepressant Cymbalta to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, including discomfort from osteoarthritis and chronic lower back pain. The approval marks the first non-traditional analgesic approved for chronic pain. Cymbalta is among the company’s top-selling drugs, with 2009 sales of $ 3.075 billion. The drug is also approved to treat diabetic nerve pain, fibromyalgia and anxiety.
Patients With Fibromyalgia Have a Higher Frequency of Cognitive Dysfunction Than the General Population: Presented at CONy
The high frequency of cognitive impairment compared with the general population can be classified as mild cognitive disorder in patients suffering from fibromyalgia, according to a study presented here on October 30 at the 4th World Congress on Controversies in Neurology (CONy). Fibromyalgia can produce a wide range of symptoms from joint stiffness to disturbed sleep. However, it is less clear whether these patients have a higher frequency of cognitive dysfunction, said Abel Cifuentes, Institute of Neurological and Gerontological Sciences, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Restless Leg Syndrome Linked to Fibromyalgia
Restless leg syndrome is about 10 times more common in people with fibromyalgia than those without, which might be one reason people with fibromyalgia often report difficulty sleeping, according to new research. “Restless leg syndrome can be associated with a number of primary disorders, such as anemia and kidney failure. I think this study suggests we should add fibromyalgia to the potential associations of restless leg syndrome,” says Nathaniel F. Watson, MD, one of the study authors and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The Case of an Educated Woman With Fibromyalgia Seeking CAM Therapies
Ms. M is a 38-year-old university lecturer who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 2 years ago. She had extensive work-ups that excluded other underlying medical disorders, including other rheumatologic disease, and she met the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for the diagnosis. These criteria comprise chronic widespread pain on both sides of her body in the upper and lower axial skeleton, and tenderness at 15 of 18 sites.
Medical conditions in fibromyalgia patients and their relationship to pregabalin efficacy: pooled analysis of Phase III clinical trials
Objective: Patients with fibromyalgia demonstrate high rates of comorbid somatic and psychiatric disorders. The current post hoc study analyzed the prevalence of comorbid conditions and their relationship to pregabalin efficacy in patients with fibromyalgia pooled from four Phase III clinical trials.
Methods: Patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria, randomized to placebo or 300, 450, or 600 mg/day pregabalin, and with ≥ 1 postbaseline pain score were included. The frequency of comorbid conditions was obtained from patient-reported, voluntary medical histories. Patients were categorized based on the presence of a medical condition (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome) or a group of medical conditions (e.g., neurological disorders). Two efficacy variables were examined within each comorbid category: endpoint changes from baseline in weekly mean pain diary scores (11-point numeric rating scale) and Patient Global Impression of Change.
Acupunture for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A small but growing body of evidence suggests that acupuncture may be an effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome. A recent Chinese study showed that 2 treatments from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were effective — acupuncture and Shenmai injection (which is composed of 2 common TCM herbs.) However, researchers say acupuncture was the far more effective treatment.
Rhodiola Supplements for Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Because I have drug sensitivities, like a lot of people with fibromyalgia (FMS) or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS), I’m not taking any medications for my FMS. Instead, I rely largely on supplements. Rhodiola is a powerful antioxidant and adaptogen (adaptogens help your body balance and regulate itself). It hasn’t been studied specifically for FMS or ME/CFS, but clinical trials show that it helps with many of the problems we have.
“How Do You Even Get Out Of Bed In the Morning?”
At work on Wednesday, our student nurse had a migraine. When she felt a bit better she managed to come into the office, looking rather wan, and naturally as a fellow veteran migraine sufferer I commiserated with her, and also marvelled at her ability to come to work at all. That’s dedication for you! Our conversation turned to health, and our senior colleague also joined in, asking how I was doing. It was the first time I’d had a chance to talk to her since my Fibromyalgia diagnosis, so I let her know about that and my three awful days on Amitriptyline. She’s another who can sympathise, she also has an invisible condition and although she manages it very effectively, she sometimes has bad days, mainly after her treatments.
Reflection In the Mirror
The past few weeks have been really difficult emotionally and physically for me. One of the biggest obstacles has been the realization that I no longer need certain medications that I had needed before in the past for health reasons. Feeling better physically has been a blessing and unearthed new and unfelt feelings and emotions that have simmered beneath the surface for years. For me the feeling of depending on a medication to make me feel a certain way is unnerving and frustrating. Not only can I not depend on my body to feel a certain way every day, but I have to depend on a medication to “help” my body fake it to feel “good”. I made the decision to remove myself from the medications completely. The risks outweighed the benefits. Once I just finally did it I felt liberated and free of the controlling schedule of “Take this pill at this time, and don’t forget to take that one or you will feel terrible.” I just could not take it anymore. I took myself off all but one, the main prescription that I could not just get out of my system alone.
My Journey in Healing: The Efforts and the Rewards
It has been nearly two months since I started my yoga teacher training program and I have learned so much.
The Benefits:
Yoga heals. A recent study on yoga for fibromyalgia conducted at Oregon Health & Science University confirms what I have been experiencing since beginning my yoga practice 18 months ago “yoga appears to assist in combating a number of serious fibromyalgia symptoms, including pain, fatigue, stiffness, poor sleep, depression, poor memory, anxiety and poor balance. All of these improvements were shown to be not only statistically but also clinically significant, meaning the changes were large enough to have a practical impact on daily functioning. For example, pain was reduced in the yoga group by an average of 24 percent, fatigue by 30 percent and depression by 42 percent.”
This is nice reading this post. In my opinion, the method that you put on this article is very effective so that the patients can deal with this syndrome . However, it is also important to have routine check up and consult to the doctor to ensure the condition of each patient.