Fibromyalgia News

The 2018 Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America released today by the American College of Rheumatology demonstrates that access to affordable rheumatology care varied considerably from state to state, with most states averaging a “C” grade.

We begin with a 24-year-old previously healthy female presenting with gradual worsening — over the last few months — migraine-like headaches accompanied by nausea but no vomiting. She was in a usual state of health when she started getting headaches, that were described as intermittent with a deep ache sensation. The headaches were unilateral and would switch from left to right and sometimes occur between the eyes. The patient described the severity as 8 out of 10. The headaches did not wake her from sleep, and she was unsure of what triggered them. She denied hearing loss, tinnitus, numbness or tingling of extremities, weakness, joint pain, joint swelling or rashes. She reported no new medications.

Johns Hopkins Hospital has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Survey as the top-ranked hospital in the country for rheumatology for the 2018 to 2019 year.

Healio Rheumatology is proud to announce the launch of Rheuminations, a podcast series hosted by Adam Brown, MD, focusing on medical mysteries and other ripping yarns of the immune system gone awry.

AMSTERDAM — Fatigue coupled with sleep difficulties — including complications initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, early morning waking and nonrestorative sleep — predict the onset of chronic widespread pain after 5 years, according to findings presented at the EULAR Annual Congress.

DESTIN, Fla. — Fibromyalgia is best understood and treated as a central inflammatory syndrome, and rheumatologists should understand that pain is not its primary symptom, according to findings presented at the 2018 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology.

DESTIN, Fla. — The use of a blood sample to test if a patient’s gene expression pattern is consistent with fibromyalgia could assist health care providers in differentiating fibromyalgia from autoimmune conditions with similar symptoms, according to findings presented at the 2018 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology.

There is a high rate of chronic widespread pain among patients with ankylosing spondylitis and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis, with an even higher prevalence among women, according to findings published in BMC Rheumatology.

Tai chi mind-body interventions resulted in comparable or greater improvements in pain symptoms than traditional aerobic exercise, the most commonly prescribed nonpharmacological treatment, among patients with fibromyalgia, according to findings published in the BMJ.

An estimated 5 million adults in the United States are affected by fibromyalgia, according to the NIH, with women disproportionately comprising approximately 80% to 90% of those diagnosed. Despite being one of the most common chronic pain conditions, fibromyalgia remains one of the most difficult to diagnose, due in part to the loose confederation of nonspecific symptoms associated with this condition, including fatigue, musculoskeletal pain and insomnia.