Fibromyalgia - Conditions with Similar Symptoms

(Page 2)

Major Depression. The link between psychological disorders and fibromyalgia is very strong. Studies report that 50 - 70% of fibromyalgia patients have a lifetime history of depression. However, only 18 - 36% of fibromyalgia patients have major depression.

Some studies have found that people who have both psychological disorders and fibromyalgia are more likely to seek medical help, compared with patients who simply have symptoms of fibromyalgia. If this is the case, study results may be biased, finding a higher-than-actual association between depression and fibromyalgia.

Depressed feelings in people with fibromyalgia can be normal responses to the pain and fatigue caused by this syndrome. Such emotions, however, are temporary and related to the condition. They are not considered to be a depression disorder. Unlike ordinary periods of sadness, an episode of major depression can last for many months.

---

---

Symptoms of major depression include the following:

• Depressed mood every day
• Feeling worthless or inappropriately guilty
• Inability to concentrate or make decisions
• Insomnia or excessive sleeping
• Low energy every day
• Restlessness or a sense of being slowed down
• Significant weight gain or loss (of 10% or more of an individual's typical body weight)
• Suicidal thoughts

If several of the above symptoms are present, and none of the physical symptoms (particularly the tender points) of fibromyalgia exist, the condition is most likely major depression.

Chronic Headache. Chronic primary headaches, such as migraines, are common in fibromyalgia patients. Some experts believe that migraine headaches and fibromyalgia may share common defects in the systems that regulate certain chemical messengers in the brain, including serotonin and epinephrine (adrenaline). Low levels of magnesium have also been noted in patients with both fibromyalgia and migraines. Chronic migraine sufferers who do not benefit from usual therapies may also have fibromyalgia.