Published Mar 19, 2004
veetach
450 Posts
What are your opinions, nurses? Is Fibromyalgia a justified condition or just a basket term ? I am interested in your feedback. It seems like we see a large number of patients (usually women) with "fibromyalgia" and the numbers are getting larger and larger.
I even had a patient tell me that fibromyalgia patients were predisposed to trigeminal neuralgia.
teeituptom, BSN, RN
4,283 Posts
20 years ago we never saw that as a diagosis
now everyone it seems has it
The only steady fact about it is that there is a 99% correlation associated with clinical depression.
FM aka muscle fiber pain
another dx we see all the time in the ER that makes us
every single one of them are on anti depressants and anti anxiety agents.
Is there any single test that confirms it????
Why is it so common now ?????
Maybe its in the water??????
kmchugh
801 Posts
I agree, Tom. There is an incredibly high coorelation to depression. It makes most of us in anesthesia as well.
KM
OMG. He actually agreed with me once...
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
I wont let it go to my head, Probably will never happen again. Oh well such are the vagaries of life
Live long and prosper
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
88 Articles; 21,268 Posts
It does seem to be the diagnosis of the day. Here in central Illinois - we have the guru of fibromyalgia - an MD that "discovered it" and treats it agressively! I'm with the above posters - think it has more to do with depression than a true physical diagnosis.
Nurse Ratched, RN
2,149 Posts
I gotta go along with these posters. I'm not saying that the symptoms aren't real, but that calling it this is a disservice to those who are experiencing them, and likely precludes them getting adequate treatment.
Rena RN 2003, RN
635 Posts
i believe the symptoms are there. i believe the pain is real to the patient. afterall, who am i to say otherwise? but i believe that labeling the 'muscle fiber pain' as fibromyalgia and tossing some neurontin at the patient isn't the right approach to dealing with it.
after a 12 hour shift, my muscle fibers ache. happens after every shift and since i'm full time, that would mean that more than 50% of the time i have 'muscle fiber pain'. FM? no. lack of rest and excercise and improper diet.
but instead of having the patient start a regimen of proper exercise, sleep patterns, and improved diet it is easier to throw a pill at it and call it cured.
JMO.