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Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Presentation, Diagnosis, Differential Diagnosis, and Vulnerability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

I. Jon Russell  and
Karen G. Raphael
I. Jon Russell*
Affiliation:
Dr. Russell is associate professor of medicine and director of the University Clinical Research Center at the, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio
Karen G. Raphael
Affiliation:
Dr. Raphael is associate professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Diagnostic Sciences at the, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark
*
Department of Medicine, Mail Code 7868, University of Texas Health Center, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, San Antonio, TX 78229-3900; Tel: 201-567-4661; E-mail: russell@uthscsa.dcci.com
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Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) presents with widespread soft tissue pain. Common comorbidities include severe insomnia, body stiffness, affective symptoms, irritable bowels, and urethral syndrome. A 1990 research classification depends on a history of widespread pain and prominent tenderness to palpation at 11 or more of 18 specific tender points. It is a criteria-based diagnosis rather than one by exclusion and can accompany other medical conditions. FMS occurs worldwide, and can present any age, but is most common in adult females. Although numerous studies and reviews contend that FMS may be caused by psychological stress such as sexual abuse, a critical epidemiological review fails to support that concept. Existing data suggest that some individuals with FMS may have a dysregulated physiological stress response system that predates the onset of symptoms.

Type
Research Article
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 13 , Issue S5 , March 2008 , pp. 6 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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