Balance and gait may be impaired in people with fibromyalgia, highlights small new study

Balance could be severely impaired in people with fibromyalgia, a finding that has led experts to suggest that fall prevention should be a priority in this group.A team assessed gait (how people walk), functional performance, balance and pain levels in 26 women with fibromyalgia syndrome who they compared to 16 healthy women.

They found that women with fibromyalgia had slower walking speed, reduced stride length and different body sway than the healthy women. Several measures of gait and balance were associated with high levels of pain, depression, stiffness, anxiety and fatigue in the women with fibromyalgia.

“Our data revealed that both gait and balance were severely impaired in fibromyalgia, and that subjective complaints associated with fibromyalgia could contribute to functional disability in these patients,” the authors say. “These findings suggest that optimal rehabilitation and fall prevention in fibromyalgia require a comprehensive assessment of both psychological responses to pain and physical impairments during postural control and gait.”

Click here to read the original research.

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