Fibromyalgia is a common neurologic health problem that causes widespread pain and tenderness sensitivity to touch. The pain and tenderness tend to come and go, and move about the body. Most often, people with this chronic long-term illness are fatigued very tired and have sleep problems. The diagnosis can be made with a careful examination. Fibromyalgia is most common in women, though it can occur in men. It most often starts in middle adulthood, but can occur in the teen years and in old age.
You are at higher risk for fibromyalgia if you have a rheumatic disease health problem that affects the joints, muscles and bones. These include osteoarthritis , lupus , rheumatoid arthritis , or ankylosing spondylitis. Fibromyalgia is a neurologic chronic health condition that causes pain all over the body and other symptoms.
Other symptoms of fibromyalgia that patients most often have are:. The causes of fibromyalgia are unclear. They may be different in different people. Current research suggests involvement of the nervous system, particularly the central nervous system brain and spinal cord. Fibromyalgia is not from an autoimmune, inflammation, joint, or muscle disorder. Fibromyalgia may run in families. There likely are certain genes that can make people more prone to getting fibromyalgia and the other health problems that can occur with it.
Genes alone, though, do not cause fibromyalgia. There is most often some triggering factor that sets off fibromyalgia. It may be spine problems, arthritis, injury, or other type of physical stress. Emotional stress also may trigger this illness.
Levels of brain chemicals and proteins may change. More recently, Fibromyalgia has been described as Central Pain Amplification disorder, meaning the volume of pain sensation in the brain is turned up too high. Although Fibromyalgia can affect quality of life, it is still considered medically benign. It does not cause any heart attacks, stroke, cancer, physical deformities, or loss of life. A doctor will suspect fibromyalgia based on your symptoms. Doctors may require that you have tenderness to pressure or tender points at a specific number of certain spots before saying you have fibromyalgia, but they are not required to make the diagnosis see the Box.
A physical exam can be helpful to detect tenderness and to exclude other causes of muscle pain. There are no diagnostic tests such as X-rays or blood tests for this problem.
Yet, you may need tests to rule out another health problem that can be confused with fibromyalgia. Because widespread body pain is the main feature of fibromyalgia, health care providers will ask you to describe your pain. This may help tell the difference between fibromyalgia and other diseases with similar symptoms. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.
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A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. See more conditions. Fibromyalgia: Understand how it's diagnosed. Products and services. Fibromyalgia: Understand how it's diagnosed Fibromyalgia symptoms often mimic those of other conditions. By Mayo Clinic Staff. Thank you for Subscribing Our Housecall e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest health information.
Please try again. Something went wrong on our side, please try again. Show references Wolfe F, et al. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism. Goldman L, et al. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and myofascial pain. In: Goldman-Cecil Medicine.
Elsevier; Accessed Aug. But doing so takes a lot of time, effort, and money. According to the National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association , it takes an estimated 5 years on average for a patient with fibromyalgia to get a proper diagnosis.
In , the American College of Rheumatology endorsed a new set of criteria for diagnosing fibromyalgia. They published those criteria in the journal Arthritis Care and Research. Under the old system, you needed to have widespread pain, as well tenderness when pressure was applied to at least 11 out of 18 points on your body.
Your doctor will add up all of your points for a final score between 0 and This includes fatigue, cognitive problems, and other possible signs of fibromyalgia. Your doctor will also ask you to rate the severity of these symptoms over the past week, on a scale from 0 to 3.
To be diagnosed with fibromyalgia, you need to have experienced symptoms at a similar level for at least 3 months. Your doctor should also take steps to rule out other possible causes of your symptoms. The official diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia no longer requires a tender point examination. But your doctor might still check for 18 tender points associated with the disorder. Tender points feel painful when only a small amount of pressure is applied.
To conduct a tender point exam, your doctor will press on 18 points on your body with their fingertip. Many conditions can cause symptoms similar to those of fibromyalgia. Instead, diagnostic tests are performed to see if another condition could be causing the symptoms. Blood tests are usually ordered to rule out conditions with similar symptoms.
Patients typically undergo a thorough physical, with the patient alerting the doctor to areas causing pain. Some doctors may press lightly on the areas of the body called tender points, discreet areas of tenderness in the muscular and tendinous tissue of those with fibromyalgia.
These areas are at uniform and consistent sites in fibromyalgia patients, who are generally unaware of the tender points until a doctor presses on them. The doctor may also ask whether any relatives have or have had similar symptoms, since fibromyalgia seems to have a genetic component.
Guidelines for a fibromyalgia diagnosis have evolved in recent decades. Criteria developed in emphasized pain symptoms and a physical exam that involved checking on 18 tender points. In , the American College of Rheumatology revised its criteria for a fibromyalgia diagnosis to take into account symptoms other than pain and increased the number of tender points to See Understanding Joint Pain.
The guidelines still considered tender points an important part of the diagnosis, but no longer required that pain be felt in 11 of these points, as determined by a physical exam that involved the doctor pushing down on these locations.
Before being considered for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, symptoms must have been experienced for at least three months and all other causes for the symptoms ruled out. If that is the case, the diagnosis is then based on scores in two major areas, widespread pain and symptom severity, experienced by the patient during the past week.
To be classified as widespread, the pain must be on the upper part of the body as well as below the waist.
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