Fibromyalgia
Symptom and Information
Fibromyalgia, formerly known as fibrositis, means pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons – the soft fibrous tissues in the body. It is a chronic condition causing pain, stiffness, and tenderness of the muscles, tendons and joints. It is also characterized by restless sleep, awakening feeling tired, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and disturbances in bowel function. This condition was discovered in a sleep lab when abnormal brain wave pattern was recorded in the patients during sleep.
While fibromyalgia is one of the most common diseases affecting the muscles, its cause is unknown. The onset of fibromyalgia has been associated with psychological distress, trauma, and infection. These conditions do not cause fibromyalgia but they may awaken an underlying physiological abnormality that is already present.
Fibromyalgia affects predominantly women (over 80 per cent) between the ages of 35 and 55 years.
Symptoms
The universal symptom of fibromyalgia is pain. The patients seem to have an increased sensitivity to many different sensory stimuli, and an unusually low pain threshold. Minor sensory stimuli that ordinarily would not cause pain in individuals can cause disabling pain in patients with fibromyalgia. People describe the pain as deep muscular aching, throbbing, shooting, and stabbing. Intense burning may also be present. Quite often, the pain and stiffness are worse in the morning, and are more in the muscle groups that are used repetitively.
The pain of fibromyalgia is wide spread, involving both sides of the body. Generally the pain localized in certain areas of the body brings on widespread pain and muscle spasm when touched. These are known as ‘tender points’. Tender points are commonly found around the elbows, shoulders, knees, hips, back of the head and the sides of the breast bone.
Fatigue occurs in 90 per cent of patients. This may be related to abnormal sleep patterns commonly observed in these patients. They often awaken in the morning without feeling fresh.
Mental and/or emotional disturbances occur in over half of fibromyalgia patients. These symptoms include poor concentration, forgetfulness, mood changes, irritability, depression, and anxiety. Other symptoms include migraine and tension headaches, numbness or tingling of different parts of the body, abdominal pain related to irritable bowel syndrome, and irritable bladder, causing painful and frequent urination.
Most patients of fibromyalgia have an associated sleep disorder called the alpha-EEG anomaly. It has been observed that most fibromyalgia patients can fall asleep without much trouble, but their deep sleep (stage 4 sleep) is constantly interrupted by bursts of brain activity, so that the patient feels that he has spent the night without any sleep.
It is not necessary that all the above symptoms be present in every patient of fibromyalgia. The symptoms can occur intermittently and in different combinations.
