Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a chronic health problem that causes diffuse pain throughout most of the body. There is typically extreme tenderness to touch and pressure that affects muscles and joints, and this can be accompanied by a host of other symptoms:

• Severe fatigue
• Sleep problems
• Cognitive problems (trouble with memory or thinking)
• Depression or anxiety
• Headaches
• Digestive problems (i.e. irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease)
• Irritable or overactive bladder
• Pelvic pain

Symptoms can wax and wane, and stress is a known factor that can make the condition worse. The cause is unknown and there’s no test available to confirm the diagnosis. The diagnosis is made based on the judgement and assessment of your physician, and depends on your symptoms and findings on physical examination.

There are no injections or procedures to treat this condition but often times, fibromyalgia is accompanied by other issues or problems (i.e, spinal arthritis) that can be treated by such measures. The physicians of Centers for Pain Control can help identify and treat those other causes of pain as way of decreasing your overall symptoms. As symptoms from those other issues become well controlled, the symptoms strictly caused by the fibromyalgia can be easier to manage.