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Query: UMLS:C0016053 (fibromyalgia)
 4,687 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

MEDAS-agencies are medical institutions within the Swiss Disability Insurance, which specialize in assessing the working capacity of candidates who apply for a disability pension. Degenerative and other chronic pain disorders of the musculoskeletal system form the majority of cases that we investigate. Fibromyalgia is one of our most frequent diagnoses (8.6%). We become involved in cases on average 8.5 years after the first onset of painful symptoms and on average 2.5 years after the patients have ceased to work. Our experience, tells us that fibromyalgia is usually associated with psychological disturbances; thus our psychiatrists have found important psychological problems in 86.7% of applicants. They found mainly neurotic and depressive syndromes. Our investigations have shown that psychological disturbances precede the onset of musculoskeletal pain in about 70% of patients. Therefore, we don't consider fibromyalgia syndrome as an entity of its own, but regard it as a pain syndrome in which there are underlying psychological problems in most cases.
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PMID:[Fibromyalgia (generalized tendomyopathy) in expert assessment. Analysis of 158 cases]. 965 72

Fibromyalgia is present in 2% of the general population and leads to impairment by chronic pain and fatigue. It does not improve without therapy directed at the symptoms of fibromyalgia. We describe our interdisciplinary group treatment for patients with fibromyalgia. They received a physical examination, ergometry and psychometric tests both at admission and before discharge, and they were questioned to the degree and localization of their pain, to fatigue, sleeping disorders and functional symptoms. Therapy included information about fibromyalgia, learning of coping strategies, relaxation and endurance training. Our results show that our interdisciplinary group treatment is effective for fibromyalgia and improves anxiety, depression and well being after a period of 5 weeks of in-patient rehabilitation.
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PMID:[Interdisciplinary group therapy for fibromyalgia]. 962 47

Originally described as "fibrositis," fibromyalgia has long been considered a muscle disorder, and many studies have investigated the possible pathologic basis of the disorder by examining muscle tissue, using various methodologic approaches. Although initial studies suggested a possible pathologic basis in muscle, most had serious methodologic limitations. More recent studies, however, have avoided methodologic pitfalls and indicate that the muscles of patients with fibromyalgia are normal. When data from studies of tenderness are also taken into account, the weight of evidence suggests that fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome which has a central rather than peripheral or muscular basis.
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PMID:Fibromyalgia is not a muscle disorder. 963 90

The evaluation of pain is one of the major problems facing general practitioners and specialists in medicine. Although the source of pain can be usually be traced to specific abnormalities in a given organ system, some patients present with generalized pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, for which no specific source can be found. Some researchers have begun to consider that although there may be a somatic source of such pain at its initiation, over time the pain may be maintained or exacerbated by functional alterations in critical regions of the brain and spinal cord that are involved in pain processing or pain inhibition. This article describes the techniques currently used to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the brain by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, and reviews the SPECT and positron emission tomography literature concerning alterations in functional brain activity associated with pain in healthy individuals and in patients with chronic pain, including those with fibromyalgia. The article concludes by describing the implications of current knowledge about pain and abnormal functional brain activity in the understanding of the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia and in the development of therapeutic strategies to manage patients with this disorder.
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PMID:Abnormal functional activity of the central nervous system in fibromyalgia syndrome. 963 95

An information processing model of pain symptom perception and reporting predicts that individuals prone to high levels of attentional self-focus and negative affect will report more pain than individuals low in these characteristics. Past research on college student and medical patient samples has shown that individuals high in private body consciousness (PBC), or attentional self-focus and who report higher levels of anxiety report more pain symptoms than counterparts low in PBC and anxiety. The present study examined effects of PBC and anxiety on pain reports of individuals suffering chronic pain (N = 144). Pain patients suffering chronic headache, low back pain, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia were included in the sample. A non-pain control sample (N = 31) was also studied to examine potential differences between controls and pain patients. Results indicated that pain patients reporting high levels of PBC reported more pain, although the effects of anxiety on pain reports among pain patients was not significant. Controls did not differ from pain patients on PBC, nor did the 4 groups of pain patients differ on PBC, suggesting PBC is a dispositional variable. Implications for the importance of attentional self-focus in pain symptom reporting are discussed.
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PMID:Private body consciousness, anxiety and pain symptom reports of chronic pain patients. 964 28

The lack of objective parameters makes the measurement of pain and the efficacy of pain treatment in patients with chronic pain very difficult. We performed acupuncture therapy in fibromyalgia patients and established a combination of methods to objectify pain measurement before and after therapy. The parameters corresponded to patients' self-report. Twenty-nine fibromyalgia patients as defined by ACR-criteria (25 women, 4 men) with a mean age of 48.2 +/- 2.0 years and a mean disease duration of 6.1 +/- 1.0 years participated in the study. Pain levels and positive tender points were assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS, i.e., range 0-100 mm) and dolorimetry. Serotonin and substance P levels in serum and the serotonin concentration in platelets were measured concomitantly. During acupuncture therapy no analgesic medication was allowed. The VAS scores decreased from 64.0 +/- 3.4 mm before therapy to 34.5 +/- 4.3 mm after therapy (P < 0.001). Dolorimetry revealed a decreased number of tender points after therapy from 16.0 +/- 0.6 to 11.8 +/- 1.0, P < 0.01. Serotonin levels decreased from 715.8 +/- 225.8 micrograms/10(12) platelets to 352.4 +/- 47.9 micrograms/10(12) platelets (P < 0.01), whereas the serum concentration increased from 134.0 +/- 14.3 ng/ml to 171.2 +/- 14.6 ng/ml (P < 0.01). Substance P levels in serum increased from 43.4 +/- 3.5 pg/ml to 66.9 +/- 8.8 pg/ml (P < 0.01). Acupuncture treatment of patients with fibromyalgia was associated with decreased pain levels and fewer positive tender points as measured by VAS and dolorimetry. This was accompanied by decreased serotonin concentration in platelets and an increase of serotonin and substance P levels in serum. These results suggest that acupuncture therapy is associated with changes in the concentrations of pain-modulating substances in serum. The preliminary results are objective parameters for acupuncture efficacy in patients with fibromyalgia.
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PMID:Pain treatment of fibromyalgia by acupuncture. 967 97

The aim of this qualitative study was to describe, from the perspective of 22 women (aged 22-60 years) with fibromyalgia, their experiences and beliefs of the pain and its origin and how the pain affects family and social life. Open-ended interviews were analysed via a method influenced by grounded theory. Seven descriptive categories were grounded in the data, forming two higher-order concepts: psychosocial vulnerability and maintaining forces. The first of these core concepts, psychosocial vulnerability, comprises the categories: traumatic life history, over-compensatory perseverance, pessimistic life view, and unsatisfying work situation. In the interviews, there are abundant examples of early loss, high degree of responsibility early in life, and social problems with feelings of helplessness and hoplessness later in life. The second core concept, maintaining forces, consists of the categories professional care, pain benefits and family support, which seem to contribute to the persistence of pain. Our results indicate intrapsychic and psychosocial dimensions, which support the hypothesis that individuals with insecure attachment styles are overrepresented among patients with chronic pain.
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PMID:Psychosocial vulnerability and maintaining forces related to fibromyalgia. In-depth interviews with twenty-two female patients. 980 30

Changes of the second suppressive period (ES2) of the exteroceptive suppression of the temporalis muscle activity are found in patients with chronic tension-type headache (TTH) and are suggested to reflect an abnormal endogenous pain control system. We investigated whether similar changes are found in patients with the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) that is also believed to result from disturbed central pain processing. The ES2 values of 27 patients with FMS were compared with those of 18 patients with TTH and 40 healthy volunteers. The duration of ES2 (+/-SD) in FMS patients was 30.6+/-7.5 ms and was not significantly different from the control group (33.1+/-7.8 ms), whereas it was significantly shortened in TTH patients (22.9+/-11.5 ms). Our results indicate that, despite similar concepts on the pathophysiology of the two chronic pain disorders, there are no comparable changes of this brain stem reflex activity in FMS.
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PMID:Exteroceptive suppression of temporalis muscle activity in patients with fibromyalgia, tension-type headache, and normal controls. 980 49

It seems obvious in retrospect that the treatment of disorders by interocclusal devices followed two paths: stabilization splints and functional orthopedic appliances. The dividing line between them is not always clear. Both have some function related to the position of the mandible. They may not differ significantly in their control of occlusal stability (e.g., telescoping devices anchored to stabilization splints). The stabilization splint, as well as other conservative measures, will play an increasing role in accepted therapy for TMD. The use of anterior repositioning devices for TMD, including MPD syndrome, will decrease. Research may provide answers that allow them to be used more specifically and predictably. Perhaps there will be but little change in their use where there is an association of TMD and Class II malocclusion. There will be an increase in the use of interocclusal devices for the treatment of snoring and obstructive apnea. Some additional directions seem to have emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s: In the absence of pain and significant debilitation, treatment for TMD, if any, is to be reversible. Prevention or aggravation of TMD should be practiced to the extent possible during dental procedures. One long-term, well-designed, prospective study indicated that the incidence and severity of TMD could be reduced by appropriate occlusal adjustment. There is a small, but nevertheless important minority of patients with TMD who progress to persistent pain and/or dysfunction. Initial management of the vast majority of patents with TMD should be use of noninvasive reversible therapies. Surgery is indicated in only a relatively small percentage of cases of TMD. Research on interocclusal devices should not terminate simply because they are in part dental devices (i.e., biomechanical forms of treatment). The diagnosis and treatment of TMD has been called a dilemma, especially for those patients with chronic pain for whom no treatment has been effective. However, it would be ill-advised to abandon what treatment is already known to be effective by allowing those few but psychosocially important patients with chronic pain to determine what should be done for the vast majority of patients with TMD: reversible forms of treatment, including physiotherapy, pharmacologicals, and the stabilization occlusal bite plane splint.
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PMID:Reflections on the Michigan splint and other intraocclusal devices. 986 32

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome, more common in women. Its prevalence is estimated around 2% in the general population, and up to 20% among rheumatology outpatients. Besides musculoskeletal pain, symptoms as fatigue and sleep disturbance are considered characteristic. Research criteria have been set up, but their seemingly preciseness is unable to distinguish clearly between fibromyalgia and other functional somatic syndromes (chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome) and psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety), with which a striking comorbidity is documented. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia does not theoretically require the exclusion of muscle, joint, or metabolic diseases, but in clinical practice this problem proves to be of crucial importance. There are numbers of pathophysiological hypothesis for fibromyalgia, but none of them is fully satisfying: muscle is probably innocent; sleep disturbance, although sometimes considered a landmark of the syndrome, is unspecific; stress response studies show subtle anomaly; psychiatric disorders may represent factors of vulnerability and perpetuation rather than causes. We propose to include some of these etiological contributors in vicious circles leading to a "final common pathway" characterized by generalized hyperalgesia. Treatments of fibromyalgia, whether pharmacological (antidepressants) or psychological (cognitive-behavioral therapies) are of little efficacy, and the global prognosis of fibromyalgia is poor. However, the outcome might prove better outside the specialized clinics in which studies of chronic sufferers with severe abnormal illness behaviors are done. The social consequences of the popularization of the diagnosis of fibromyalgia should not be neglected.
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PMID:[Fibromyalgia. A critical review]. 992 93


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