What is Fibromyalgia

This page was created by Bay Recovery Center to help educate individuals and families on Fibromyalgia. If you or someone you know is seeking treatment for fibromyalgia please call toll free 1 800 375 7263

 

Fibromyalgia, as defined by the American College of Rheumatology states: Wide spread muscle pain for at least three months. In addition, fibromyalgia patients need to have at least eleven of eighteen tender points in specific anatomical areas. Fibromyalgia can exist with other conditions. It can co-exist with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, erythromatosis hepatitis, HIV ( human immuno-deficiency disorder), and other medical limitations.

Other causes of muscle pain can be drug-induced from other medications, prescription drug medications, alcohol, and hyperalgesia due to narcotics. The third variety of fibromyalgia is post-traumatic fibromyalgia caused by traumatic events such as a fall or motor vehicle accident. Acute injuries occur more frequently with drug and alcohol and use. As such, fibromyalgia can be a primary disorder, or secondary to trauma caused illnesses, or drug induced.

Typically, about one-half of the population has musculoskeletal pain at any given time, and one-quarter reports chronic pain lasting three months or more, in specific musculoskeletal regions, such as the low back or neck. Wide spread pain involving multiple areas of the body is present in 10% of the population. Women experience chronic pain disorders more frequently than men, and the pain issues can be more severe, more frequent, and of longer duration. The most severe manifestations of chronic wide spread pain in fibromyalgia is reported by 2-3% of the general population. A recent report by the National Arthritis Society Work Group estimates that five million adults in the United States have fibromyalgia. Osteoarthritis occurs in twenty-seven million people, and rheumatoid arthritis appears in 1.2 million. Fibromyalgia occurs primarily in women with a female to male ratio of 7 to 1 in the United States . The prevalence of fibromyalgia increases with age.