Is Trauma A Risk Factor For Fibromyalgia?(Brief Article)

2001 DEC 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michelle Marble, senior medical writer - Epidemiological studies have found that trauma, physical and/or psychological, precede some cases of fibromyalgia. The question is whether or not this trauma may be a causative factor.

Dr. Robert Bennett, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon, addressed this question at the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, held November 10-15, 2001, in San Francisco, California.

The overall prevalence of fibromyalgia in women is 4%. It is associated with other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and inflammatory bowel disease. He feels the likelihood of there being a post-traumatic fibromyalgia syndrome is quite likely.

According to Bennett, widespread pain syndrome is twice as prevalent as the diagnosis of fibromyalgia by clinical criteria. Factors associated with the diagnosis of widespread pain include increasing age, female sex, and history of physical and/or emotional abuse or stress. It is quite likely that fibromyalgia is underdiagnosed because widespread pain syndromes may actually be fibromyalgia.

"Disease is very old, it has not changed, it is we who have changed as we learn to perceive the formerly imperceptible," stated Bennett, borrowing a quote from Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893).

This quote was relevant as a fibromyalgia-like syndrome called neurasthenia was discussed in the medical literature in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The similarities suggest that fibromyalgia has been around for a long time. Neurasthenia was described in the early literature as a condition of weakness or exhaustion of the nervous system. Quite often it developed in a patient after a relatively minor physical injury or after mental stress.

Bennett explained ...