Fibromyalgia: one-fourth of people have precipitating trauma or infection says new study
About one-quarter of people with fibromyalgia experienced a precipitating event such as an infection or a physical or emotional trauma, says a study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
Experts asked 939 people with fibromyalgia about the impact of their fibromyalgia, the presence or absence of a trauma or infection and if symptoms were sudden or gradual when they began. Demographics and social variables, alcohol and tobacco use, and opiate and NSAID use were taken into account.
A total of 203 people reported a trauma before diagnosis (including car accidents, surgery, childbirth, falling and other injuries), 53 had an infection and the other 683 people were classed as having idiopathic fibromyalgia (ie unknown cause) with no precipitating event.
People who identified a precipitating trauma or infection were much more likely to have sudden onset of symptoms compared to those with idiopathic fibromyalgia (87.5% vs 5.9%).
In terms of how long it took to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia, people with infection had the shortest wait (43.3 months), those with trauma had a 98.5 month wait and the idiopathic fibromyalgia group had 101 months.
Worse overall health was experienced in people with precipitating infection but these people also had better emotional and mental health.
“In this study, differences between those in the trauma and idiopathic groups were limited to more sudden onset and worse Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire physical functioning in the trauma group,” explains study researcher, Dr Terry H Oh. “Those findings contradict previous findings of no difference in Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire physical functioning between patients with and without traumatic onset but agree with more reduced physical activity in patients with traumatic onset. Similar frequency of precipitating illness or infection has been reported previously in patients with fibromyalgia.”
Click here to read the original research.
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Image credit: Benjamin Random
