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SELF-DIAGNOSIS of FIBROMYALGIA

Dr. Kurland Norbert, Kfar-Saba, Israel

Nowadays medicine has become a matter of internet, television broadcasts, and popular magazines. It is good to get to know yourself, to identify what you are suffering from, to put a name to your illness, is it not said to be half the cure. But the self-diagnosis of fibromyalgia should only be the starting point for going for a consultation. While certain clinical signs suggest fibromyalgia, there are currently no laboratory or radiological examinations that can confirm fibromyalgia. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia is based on careful questioning, physical examination, and looking for conditions that might resemble fibromyalgia. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of elimination. Indeed, many diseases with completely different prognoses and treatments can simulate fibromyalgia and must be eliminated before diagnosing fibromyalgia. Among these, general diseases such as thyroid insufficiency, diabetes, hepatitis C, infectious mononucleosis, Lyme disease; rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Sjogren’s syndrome, hypermobility joint syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus; neuro-muscular diseases such as multiple sclerosis, small fiber neuropathy, myopathy, myositis. Additional tests will be requested oriented according to clinical signs and disorders. This is the role of the doctor.

If of all the diagnoses, it is the diagnosis of fibromyalgia that appears first when associated with varying degrees of joint and muscle pain, fatigue, exhaustion, sleep disturbances, memory impairment and concentration, digestive and urinary disorders, decreased sexuality, cold intolerance, the clinical picture is often not as complete making a self-diagnosis more difficult.

The danger of a fibromyalgia self-diagnosis that does not lead to a medical consultation would be unnecessary or even dangerous self-medication, but above all would delay the diagnosis and treatment of a condition with a more severe prognosis. In truth, fibromyalgia often requires a diagnostic and therapeutic approach that is quite different from what is usually proposed, and there are links between fibromyalgia and various pathologies.

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