Facts and Myths About Fibromyalgia

In an article of the Spring 2010 issue of Pain Pathways (page 53), a simple quiz was constructed to test people’s knowledge and perception about fibromyalgia, a debilitating and extremely painful medical condition.  Here were some of the most important and revealing questions and answers related to fibromyalgia as reported by the magazine:

-Fibromyalgia is considered an arthritis-related disorder and a rheumatic disease

-You may be diagnosed with fibromyalgia if you have widespread pain (not isolated to a specific body part or region) and pain in at least 11 of 18 standard recognized “tender/trigger points”

-Second problems associated with fibromyalgia (besides chronic pain) include sleep disturbances, fatigue, depression/anxiety, poor memory, and poor concentration

-Fibromyalgia occurs 7 to 9 times more often in women and most affects the 35-55 year old age range

-Treatments for fibromyalgia include patient education, stress reduction techniques, exercise, and medications

-Fibromyalgia is clinically diagnosed as a syndrome, not a disease (syndrome=collection of medical problems that occur together but have no specific, identifiable, cause; disease=medical condition with a specific cause and recognizable signs and symptoms)

-Fibromyalgia affects 1 in 50 Americans

-Fibromyalgia patients have both increased sensitivity to many different sensory stimuli and a very low pain threshold

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer located in Altoona, PA and serves the central and western Pennsylvania area.  For more information on him and his firm, please click here.