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

A structured psychiatric interview, forming part of a global psychopathological approach, revealed higher prevalence rates of current and lifetime psychiatric disorders and a higher degree of psychiatric comorbidity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) than in a medical control group. In contrast to previous studies, a very high prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was found in CFS, characterized by an early onset and a high rate of psychiatric comorbidity. It is postulated that GAD represents a susceptibility factor for the development of CFS. A significantly higher prevalence was also observed for the somatization disorder (SD) in the CFS group. Apart from a higher female-to-male ratio in fibromyalgia, no marked differences were observed in sociodemographic or illness-related features, or in psychiatric morbidity, between CFS patients with and without fibromyalgia. CFS patients with SD have a longer illness duration and a higher rate of psychiatric comorbidity. These findings are consistent with the suggestion of Hickie et al. (1) that chronic fatigued subjects with SD should be distinguished from subjects with CFS.
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PMID:Generalized anxiety disorder in chronic fatigue syndrome. 919 5

Recent studies of the doctor-patient relationship have shown that certain patients are perceived as frustrating or difficult by their doctors; however, little is known about the characteristics of these patients that elicit this dissatisfaction. As part of a larger study of rheumatology clinic patients with fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis (N = 68) we used stepwise multiple regression to select the factors most associated with physician frustration while controlling for the effects of other variables. Variable domains included demographics, psychiatric diagnoses, personality factors, functional disability, disease state, and trauma history. These domains as well as individual variables within these domains were systematically evaluated for their unique contribution to the prediction of physician frustration as measured by the Difficult Doctor-Patient Relationship Questionnaire (DDPRQ). Initial bivariate correlates of physician frustration included marital status, current dysthymia and agoraphobia, lifetime panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, adult rape and physical abuse, somatization disorder, physical and social disability, the presence of fibromyalgia, as well as neuroticism, illness impact, and perceived loss of control. The best multivariable model for estimating frustration magnitude included somatization disorder, perception of lack of control over illness, and a lifetime history of obsessive-compulsive disorder. These factors explained 48% of the variance in DDPRQ score. Physicians in this study were most frustrated with patients who had ongoing preoccupation with multiple medically unexplained physical symptoms as well as the perception of greater impact and lack of control over their illness. These findings suggest that treatment of somatization in patients with chronic symptoms may decrease physician frustration.
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PMID:Predictors of physician frustration in the care of patients with rheumatological complaints. 932 75

This study (ntotal = 35) compared early life stress ratings, parental relationships, and health status, notably orthostatic blood pressures, of middle-aged women with low-level chemical intolerance (CI group) and depression, depressives without CI (DEP group), and normals. Environmental chemical intolerance is a symptom of several controversial conditions in which women are overrepresented, that is, sick building syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. Previous investigators have postulated that people with CI have variants of somatization disorder, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) initiated by childhood abuse or a toxic exposure event. One neurobehavioral model for CI, somatization disorder, recurrent depression, and PTSD is neural sensitization, that is, the progressive amplification of host responses (e.g., behavioral, neurochemical) to repeated intermittent stimuli (e.g., drugs, chemicals, endogenous mediators, stressors). Females are more vulnerable to sensitization than are males. Limbic and mesolimbic pathways mediate central nervous system sensitization. Although both CI and DEP groups had high levels of life stress and past abuse, the CI group had the most distant and weak paternal relationships and highest limbic somatic dysfunction subscale scores. Only the CI group showed sensitization of sitting blood pressures over sessions. Together with prior evidence, these data are consistent with a neural sensitization model for CI in certain women. The findings may have implications for poorer long-term medical as well as neuropsychiatric health outcomes of a subset of women with CI. Subsequent research should test this model in specific clinical diagnostic groups with CI.
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PMID:Early life stress, negative paternal relationships, and chemical intolerance in middle-aged women: support for a neural sensitization model. 986 91

In 1997, 30% of the persons going into early retirement because of occupational disability and received pensions were psychosomatically ill. An additional large number of retirees suffered from untreatable pain such as chronic low back pain, some of them might as well have a chronic somatoform pain disorder. The article describes frequent psychosomatic diseases like somatization disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome with respect to their pathophysiology and psychological aspects as well as therapeutic advancements. It is postulated that an interdisciplinary access to these patients early in the course of their illness involving both somatic medical and psychiatric competence is the most promising means to tackle this enormous medical and health protection problem.
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PMID:[Aspects of occupational disability in psychosomatic disorders]. 1085 74

Somatization disorder (SD) is commonly seen in medical clinics and is associated with significant impairment in functioning as well as excessive utilization of health care. While antidepressants have been studied in some functional somatic syndromes such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, there are no pharmacologic treatment studies of SD itself. In this prospective, 8-week, open-label study, 15 patients diagnosed with either full SD or abridged somatization, by Escobar's criteria (four unexplained physical symptoms for men or six for women), were given nefazodone, titrated to 150 mg bid. The primary outcomes included measures of physical symptom severity (visual analogue scale), functioning (SF-36), and overall improvement (CGI). Fourteen of the 15 patients achieved the target dose of 300 mg/day and completed the trial. 73% of the patients were rated as improved on the CGI, 79% improved on the self-rated visual analogue scale and 73% of the patients improved on the SF-36. There was significant improvement for the whole group (prepost) on the SF-36, as well as on the HAM-D and the HAM-A. Of the nine patients with a categorical depression diagnosis, 55% of them were rated as improved on the CGI, and 67% improved on both the VAS and the SF-36. Of the six nondepressed patients, 67% were rated as improved on the CGI, 83% improved on the SF-36, and 50% improved on the VAS. Adverse events were generally mild and resulted in only one discontinuation. Although these data need to be confirmed in a larger, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, they suggest that patients with SD will accept and tolerate therapy with nefazodone and that nefazodone may be a useful treatment for these patients.
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PMID:Treatment of somatization disorder with nefazodone: a prospective, open-label study. 1179 53

Some patients with fibromyalgia also exhibit the neurological signs of cervical myelopathy. We sought to determine if treatment of cervical myelopathy in patients with fibromyalgia improves the symptoms of fibromyalgia and the patients' quality of life. A non-randomized, prospective, case control study comparing the outcome of surgical (n = 40) versus non-surgical (n = 31) treatment of cervical myelopathy in patients with fibromyalgia was conducted. Outcomes were compared using SF-36, screening test for somatization, HADS, MMPI-2 scale 1 (Hypochondriasis), and self reported severity of symptoms 1 year after treatment. There was no significant difference in initial clinical presentation or demographic characteristics between the patients treated by surgical decompression and those treated by non-surgical means. There was a striking and statistically significant improvement in all symptoms attributed to the fibromyalgia syndrome in the surgical patients but not in the non-surgical patients at 1 year following the treatment of cervical myelopathy (P <or= 0.018-0.001, Chi-square or Fisher's exact test). At the 1 year follow-up, there was a statistically significant improvement in both physical and mental quality of life as measured by the SF-36 score for the surgical group as compared to the non-surgical group (Repeated Measures ANOVA P < 0.01). There was a statistically significant improvement in the scores from Scale 1 of the MMPI-2 and the screening test for somatization disorder, and the anxiety and depression scores exclusively in the surgical patients (Wilcoxon signed rank, P < 0.001). The surgical treatment of cervical myelopathy due to spinal cord or caudal brainstem compression in patients carrying the diagnosis of fibromyalgia can result in a significant improvement in a wide array of symptoms usually attributed to fibromyalgia with attendant measurable improvements in the quality of life. We recommend detailed neurological and neuroradiological evaluation of patients with fibromyalgia in order to exclude compressive cervical myelopathy, a potentially treatable condition.
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PMID:Treatment of cervical myelopathy in patients with the fibromyalgia syndrome: outcomes and implications. 1742 87

This article revisits the links between psychopathology and functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), discusses the rational use of antidepressants as well as non-pharmacological approaches to the management of IBS, and suggests guidelines for the treatment of IBS based on an interdisciplinary perspective from the present state of knowledge. Relevant published literature on psychiatric disorders, especially somatization disorder, in the context of IBS, and literature providing direction for management is reviewed, and new directions are provided from findings in the literature. IBS is a heterogeneous syndrome with various potential mechanisms responsible for its clinical presentations. IBS is typically complicated with psychiatric issues, unexplained symptoms, and functional syndromes in other organ systems. Most IBS patients have multiple complaints without demonstrated cause, and that these symptoms can involve systems other than the intestine, e.g. bones and joints (fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint syndrome), heart (non-cardiac chest pain), vascular (post-menopausal syndrome), and brain (anxiety, depression). Most IBS patients do not have psychiatric illness per se, but a range of psychoform (psychological complaints in the absence of psychiatric disorder) symptoms that accompany their somatoform (physical symptoms in the absence of medical disorder) complaints. It is not correct to label IBS patients as psychiatric patients (except those more difficult patients with true somatization disorder). One mode of treatment is unlikely to be universally effective or to resolve most symptoms. The techniques of psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy can allow IBS patients to cope more readily with their illness. Specific episodes of depressive or anxiety disorders can be managed as appropriate for those conditions. Medications designed to improve anxiety or depression are not uniformly useful for psychiatric complaints in IBS, because the psychoform symptoms that sound similar to those seen in psychiatric disorders may not have the same significance in patients with IBS.
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PMID:Relationship of functional gastrointestinal disorders and psychiatric disorders: implications for treatment. 1746 42

We have created a mindfulness approach to treat patients who experience multiple, persistent, and disabling physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a well-defined medical or surgical condition. Randomized controlled trials in this area are few, and research is hampered by the lack of clear definitions. Bodily distress syndrome (BDS) or bodily stress is an empirically defined definition unifying various conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and somatization disorder. In the present PhD, we explored whether patients suffering from BDS may be committed to mental training in the form of mindfulness therapy, which is a mindfulness program specifically targeted patients suffering from BDS. The theoretical model for including mindfulness training in the treatment of BDS is based on identified neurobiological impairments in these patients and the neurobiological improvements that mindfulness training may offer. BDS is a major public health issue possibly associated with the pathology of the immuno-endocrine and autonomic nervous system. BDS patients are often stigmatized, and effective treatment is rarely delivered, which leaves these patients isolated, left by themselves, vulnerable to potentially harming medical and/or alternative treatments. Accordingly, there is a need for non-harming practical tools that patients can learn to master so that they can improve the ability to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a group program that employs mindfulness practice to alleviate suffering associated with physical, psychosomatic, and psychiatric disorders. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is designed to prevent depressive relapse. Paper I and II present systematic literature reviews only of randomized controlled trials on MBSR and MBCT. The effect of MBSR has been explored on fibromyalgia in three studies, none of them showed convincing results, but gave some indications as to improvement. The reviews recommended MBSR as a useful method for improving mental health; however, lack of long-term follow-up and active control groups are limitations in most studies. MBCT was recommended as a tool for preventing depressive relapse in recovered, recurrently depressed patients, but the implication of MBSR and MBCT is problematic, especially due to the lack of well educated mindfulness teachers. We combined MBSR with cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, specifically targeted BDS. Paper III provides original data from 119 patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial, mindfulness therapy for BDS. The randomized controlled trial indicates that BDS patients are capable of and willing to engage in mindfulness therapy. This thesis showed that mindfulness therapy can safely and successfully engage BDS patients in mindfulness practice. Since individual CBT and psychiatric consultation have previously been found to have positive outcomes for BDS patients, we compared mindfulness therapy to an active control group entitled specialized treatment in which an individual treatment was planned in collaboration between the patient and an MD specialized in BDS, CBT, and psychiatry. Mindfulness therapy was comparable to specialized treatment in improving the quality of life and the symptoms of the patients with BDS at 15-month follow-up. For primary outcome physical health (PCS) at 15-month follow-up, different developments over time for the two treatment groups could not be established (F(3,2674) = 1.51, p = 0.21). However, in the mindfulness therapy group, PCS significant changed at the end of treatment and this change remained at 15-month follow-up, whereas no significantly change was seen in the specialized treatment group until at the 15-month follow-up. In the mindfulness therapy group, 26%; CI: 14-38 reported a marked improvement (> 1 SD) at the end of treatment compared with 10%; CI: 2-18 in the specialized treatment group. This amounts to a statistically significant difference between the groups (OR = 3.21; CI 1.05-9.78, p = 0.04). The results are indicating that mindfulness therapy produced greater and more rapid improvements than specialized treatment. Mindfulness therapy appears to produce improvements within the range of those reported in the STreSS-1 trial, where CBT was compared with enhanced usual care, and no improvements on the SF-36 scale were observed in the enhanced usual care group. This indicates that the changes accomplished with the two treatments mindfulness therapy and specialized treatment reflect real changes attributable to the interventions. The economic effects of mindfulness therapy are evaluated in paper IV by the use of original register data from the 119 enrolled patients and a matched control group of 5,950 individuals. Mindfulness therapy had substantial socioeconomic benefits over specialized treatment. The costs incurred to cover permanent health-related benefits, especially disability pension, were significantly lower in the mindfulness therapy group than in the specialized treatment group over a 15-month follow-up period; 25% from the mindfulness therapy group received disability pension compared with 45% from the specialized treatment group (p = 0.025). The total health care utilization was reduced over time in both groups from the year before inclusion (mean $ 5,325, median $ 2,971) to the year after inclusion (mean $ 3,644, median $ 1,593) (p = 0.0001). There was no difference between the two groups. Five and ten years before their inclusion, the BDS patients were less self-supporting than an age-, gender- and ethnicity-matched population control group; the BDS patients accumulated more weeks of sickness benefit and unemployment. Thus, the included BDS patients may have been ill and in high risk for a social decline five and ten years before they received a proper diagnosis and treatment. In conclusion, the social and economic consequences of BDS are significant and mindfulness therapy may have a potential to significantly improve function, quality of life and symptoms, prevent a social decline, and reduce societal costs.
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PMID:Mindfulness and bodily distress. 2317 54

Fibromyalgia is a disorder that is part of a spectrum of syndromes that lack precise classification. It is often considered as part of the global overview of functional somatic syndromes that are otherwise medically unexplained or part of a somatization disorder. Patients with fibromyalgia share symptoms with other functional somatic problems, including issues of myalgias, arthralgias, fatigue and sleep disturbances. Indeed, there is often diagnostic and classification overlap for the case definitions of a variety of somatization disorders. Fibromyalgia, however, is a critically important syndrome for physicians and scientists to be aware of. Patients should be taken very seriously and provided optimal care. Although inflammatory, infectious, and autoimmune disorders have all been ascribed to be etiological events in the development of fibromyalgia, there is very little data to support such a thesis. Many of these disorders are associated with depression and anxiety and may even be part of what has been sometimes called affected spectrum disorders. There is no evidence that physical trauma, i.e., automobile accidents, is associated with the development or exacerbation of fibromyalgia. Treatment should be placed on education, patient support, physical therapy, nutrition, and exercise, including the use of drugs that are approved for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Treatment should not include opiates and patients should not become poly pharmacies in which the treatment itself can lead to significant morbidities. Patients with fibromyalgia are living and not dying of this disorder and positive outlooks and family support are key elements in the management of patients.
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PMID:Fibromyalgia: A Critical and Comprehensive Review. 2644 75

Functional somatic syndromes (FSS) are characterised by the presence of one or multiple chronic symptoms that cannot be attributed to a known somatic disease. They are thought to arise though a complex interaction of biological and psychosocial factors, but it is unclear whether they share a common aetiology. One hypothesis supported by recent studies is that the FSS are postinfectious disorders, as is widely recognised for a subset of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Our study used claims data submitted by office-based physicians to compare groups of patients with different FSS in the five years before and after the point of first diagnosis. Even five years prior to diagnosis, FSS patients consulted more frequently for a range of psychological and somatic conditions than did controls. Following diagnosis, consultation rates increased further and remained persistently high. Five years after diagnosis, between 34% (somatization disorder) and 66% (fibromyalgia) of patients were still being treated for the condition. Both prior gastrointestinal and upper-respiratory infection were associated with an increased risk of developing an FSS. We therefore recommend that patients at risk should be identified at an early stage and the underlying psychosocial and somatic issues addressed to prevent progression of the condition.
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PMID:Comorbidities of Patients with Functional Somatic Syndromes Before, During and After First Diagnosis: A Population-based Study using Bavarian Routine Data. 3255 1


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