[Muscular strength in patients with fibromyalgia. A literature review] [Article in Danish] Ugeskr Laeger. 2008 Jan 21;170(4):217-24. Dombernowsky T, Dreyer L, Bartels EM, Danneskiold-Samsøe B. Frederiksberg Hospital, Parker Instituttet, Rigshospitalet, Frederiksberg. PMID: 18282450
Do patients with fibromyalgia (FM) have reduced muscular strength?
We examined 22 articles and conclude from the results of these that FM patients have reduced muscular strength in their hands and quadriceps. The material also suggests generalised reduced muscular strength. However, the studies have several methodological shortcomings and future studies should be carefully designed with respect to patients as well as the control group and should be larger. To avoid CNS influence from e.g. fatigue and pain, muscular electro-stimulation may be used to ensure that the actual maximal muscular strength is also measured.
A Psychophysical Study of Auditory and Pressure Sensitivity in Patients With Fibromyalgia and Healthy Controls. J Pain. 2008 Feb 14 [Epub ahead of print] Geisser ME, Glass JM, Rajcevska LD, Clauw DJ, Williams DA, Kileny PR, Gracely RH. Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. PMID: 18280211
Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by widespread tenderness. Studies have also reported that persons with FM are sensitive to other stimuli, such as auditory tones. We hypothesized that subjects with FM would display greater sensitivity to both pressure and auditory tones and report greater sensitivity to sounds encountered in daily activities. FM subjects (n = 30) and healthy control subjects (n = 28) were administered auditory tones and pressure using the same psychophysical methods to deliver the stimuli and a common way of scaling responses. Subjects were also administered a self-report questionnaire regarding sensitivity to everyday sounds. Participants with FM displayed significantly greater sensitivity to all levels of auditory stimulation (Ps < .05). The magnitude of difference between FM patients' lowered auditory sensitivity (relative to control subjects) was similar to that seen with pressure, and pressure and auditory ratings were significantly correlated in both control subjects and subjects with FM. FM patients also were more sensitive to everyday sounds (t = 8.65, P < .001). These findings support that FM is associated with a global central nervous system augmentation in sensory processing. Further research is needed to examine the neural substrates associated with this abnormality and its role in the etiology and maintenance of FM.
PERSPECTIVE: Muscle tenderness is the hallmark of FM, but the findings of this study and others suggest that persons with FM display sensitivity to a number of sensory stimuli. These findings suggest that FM is associated with a global central nervous system augmentation of sensory information. These findings may also help to explain why persons with FM display a number of comorbid physical symptoms other than pain.
Chronic fatigue syndrome: characteristics and possible causes for its pathogenesis. Journal: Isr Med Assoc J. 2008 Jan;10(1):79-82. Authors: Bassi N, Amital D, Amital H, Doria A, Shoenfeld Y. Affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. NLM Citation: PMID: 18300582
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder with unknown pathogenesis and etiology, characterized by disabling fatigue, difficulty in concentration and memory, and concomitant skeletal and muscular pain. Several mechanisms have been suggested to play a role in CFS, such as excessive oxidative stress following exertion, immune imbalance characterized by decreased natural killer cell and macrophage activity, immunoglobulin G subclass deficiencies (IgG1, IgG3) and decreased serum concentrations of complement component. Autoantibodies were also suggested as a possible factor in the pathogenesis of CFS. Recent studies indicate that anti-serotonin, anti-microtubule-associated protein 2 and anti-muscarinic cholinergic receptor 1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of CFS. It has been demonstrated that impairment in vasoactive neuropeptide metabolism may explain the symptoms of CFS.
The full text of Chronic fatigue syndrome: characteristics and possible causes for its pathogenesis. Journal: Isr Med Assoc J. 2008 Jan;10(1):79-82. Authors: Bassi N, Amital D, Amital H, Doria A, Shoenfeld Y. is available for free at: http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar08jan-21.pdf
TESTING, TESTING, TESTING:
Excuse the long-suffering tones but I, like many of you, am just pig sick of hearing of folk "instantly" cured of "ME" when, by implication, they did not have the disease and had been deluded into merely thinking they had it. It is simply basic medical and scientific sense to actually examine patients adequately and to apply rigorous taxonomic disease criteria: Testing, testing, testing and separating the proverbial sheep from the goats. Then, and only then, will we know who the genuine Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients are and who are something different.
Increasingly in the UK however, instead of such genuine science-based medical integrity we are subjected to the Alice-in-Wonderland policies of a corporate-hijacked New Labour spin machine that is increasingly Orwellian.Who knows, maybe the current profiteer's war between purveyors of CBT and purveyors of SSRI's will one day soon result in an oligopolist's truce? Perhaps selling a combined CBT-LSD "Cognitive Leary Therapy": where "CFS/ME" patients are told to turn on, tune in and drop-out of the benefits system?
To be serious though, the current "CFS/ME" situation, where the one-size-fits-all shotgun approach to diagnosis & treatment is fed from on high to supine nodding-dog "medical" professionals is a tragedy as well as a travesty. The result is, that on the one extreme we had psychiatric patients mislabeled as having ME and for years denied the psychotherapy they so desperately needed, the other extreme being genuine WHO-recognised ME patients suffering inhuman abuse and neglect.
The root of all of this rubbish is the undermining of genuine science by the monopolistic capitalist profit motive: and I would direct any ME patient or medical professional to the outstanding non-Marxian documentary film entitled THE CORPORATION. It is perfect for understanding the root malaise facing humanity that is placing ME patients in the front line. If you have not yet seen it you simply MUST! www.thecorporation.com/
K. Short. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Patient. Norfolk, UK). Permission to repost.
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