What is Fibromyalgia?






 Symptoms ->

HISTORY FM has existed for centuries, and our great grandmothers who experienced FM symptoms were probably diagnosed with rheumatism.  In 1904 Sir William Gowers gave a Lecture on Lumbago:  Its Lessons and Analogues, to physicians at the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic in London, England.  It was during this lecture that Dr. Gowers described "fibrositis" for the first time and the term began to be used as a descriptive word for the symptoms of soft tissue rheumatism.  The word fibrositis indicated that inflammation was present which contributed to the patient's pain experience. As science advanced and more was learned about the disorder, it became evident that the kind of inflammation found in arthritic diseases is not present in FM.  It took until 1976 for the "itis"to be dropped and fibromyalgia syndrome adopted as the new title for this age old malady.  Syndrome was added to fibromyalgia because the term offers a way to compile the different symptoms of fibromyalgia into one disorder, discernible by healthcare professionals. In the late 1990's fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) transitioned into just fibromyalgia (FM) because research began to uncover more scientific evidence of FM being a distinct entity.  Although FM has become a familiar medical term, it continues to baffle the professional community as well as the people it affects.

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain state in which the nerve stimuli causing pain originates mainly in the tissues of the body.  Hence the increased pain on movement and the aggravation of fibromyalgia by strenuous exertion.



In his article "Fibromyalgia: A Clinical Review" published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), April 16, 2014, Dr. Dan Clauw, Director of the University of  Michigan’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center expands on current scientific thought regarding the type of pain experienced by people with fibromyalgia:

“Fibromyalgia can be thought of as a centralized pain state.  Centralized pain is a lifelong disorder beginning in adolescence or young adulthood manifested by pain experienced in different body regions at different times.  Centralized refers to central nervous system origins of/or amplification of pain.  This term does not imply that peripheral nociceptive input  (i.e. damage or inflammation of body regions) is not contributing to these individuals’ pain but rather that they feel more pain than would normally be expected based on the degree of nociceptive input.  Understanding centralized pain is important for surgeons and proceduralists because patients with these disorders may request interventions to eliminate pain (e.g. hysterectomy, back surgery). Not surprisingly, this pain-prone phenotype, best exemplified by a patient with fibromyalgia, predicts failure to respond to opioids or operations performed to reduce pain.”

PATIENT PERSPECTIVE Symptom severity of FM ranges from slight to severe.  Fibromyalgia is life-altering.  If you ask any person with fibromyalgia what fibromyalgia is, their response would be pain; from the top of their head to the end of their toes.  Pain that "waxes and wanes" from day to day and persists even with the use of scientifically accepted medical treatments.  The pain experience is described as deep muscular aching, shooting, throbbing, stabbing, pounding, along with many other descriptions, and at times it is unbearable.  People with FM do not sleep well, waking up feeling like they have been hit by a "Mack truck," with morning stiffness or spasticity that makes it difficult to move.  Repetitive movement seems to accentuate the pain and forces many people with FM to severely limit their activities, including exercise routines.  This lack of exercise results in people becoming physically unfit, causing their FM symptoms to become more severe.  The other major complaint is fatigue so severe that people have a difficult time performing everyday tasks, enjoying hobbies, staying employed or taking part in their children's activities.  People may feel as though their arms and legs are weighed down by cement, and their bodies may feel so drained of energy that every task is a major effort.

The progression of fibromyalgia research has provided new knowledge about centralized pain that is already helping to open doors to better, more effective treatment for people with fibromyalgia.



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