Rating Scale for Fibromyalgia

This is great. A rating scale for fibromyalgia, along with treatment protocols for each level. The person who submitted this article is asking if this is new. I think it is, because I research Fibro a LOT and try to keep up on as many new discoveries or articles as I can find, and I've never seen this. I think that most doctors are not even aware that this exists, because so few doctors even want to deal with us, because there are so few satisfactory treatments for us. Maybe with this scale, they will start thinking of treatment protocols suggested by the guidelines here. I wish the treatment protocols were specifically laid out for doctors to follow, and then that every Dr. got a copy for ready reference for their fibro patients.

http://fb.me/xPeYN6Hn

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Permalink Reply by Siobhan on April 22, 2012 at 5:07pm

I don't MEAN to be the skeptic, but I didn't see anywhere in the article as to who originally wrote it, when it was written, if it was published in a well-recognized journal, and how the scale was derived. I'm glad some of you are excited to finally classify themselves, but what about people like me that have varied symptoms from day to day, or may have more fatigue on certain days than pain and don't easily fit into the scale?

We are all looking for more evidence and more information as to why we feel as we do. If someone can show me the documentation as to the origins of that fibromyalgia scale I'd be more than happy to give it another look.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Wall on April 22, 2012 at 7:51pm

Siobhan,

Nothing wrong with being a skeptic. I believe this article was written by the author, who may have had years of experience in observing a large amount of patients in groups such as this, and talking to various doctors. The pain scale of 1 to 10 is universal for every illness, and the mention of how each pain level is generally treated is correct according to my experiences with patients and doctors as well. For most of us, we don't need this to be from a medical journal to realize it has some merit, but I hope such studies do or will exist. If you'd like to see some medically published info, one place you can research Fibro studies is the World Health Organization website (www.who.net). You could also google "fibromyalgia studies" or "Fibromyalgia pain level studies", to see if this has since been published somewhere.

I think observations like this are very valuable. Without people noticing common patterns, there would be nothing for the doctors to create research products about, nothing to write medical papers on, no progress in learning new thngs. For example, I was te leader of a lupus group for about 15 years before there was an internet. We spent some time comparing symptoms that we thought were ours alone, because they had never been medically documented. Just for my own curiosity, I wrote the symptoms and how many patients in our group had them. When I showed it to my rheumaologist, he asked if he could keep it, and soon it was written up in the Rheumatology medical journal. (Of course I got no credit.) So to me, these observations do have merit.

best wishes,Sheila

Siobhan said:

I don't MEAN to be the skeptic, but ...

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Permalink Reply by Siobhan on April 24, 2012 at 7:03pm

Thanks for the info. When my semester is over, I am going back into research mode to view clinical resources and databases just to satisfy my own curiosity as to what pathways are being studied, etc. I've read some blogs about a possible viral link, like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. That bothers me. My boyfriend of seven years has just started complaining about body aches and fatigue. I am hoping it is just that he's 40 now and that FMS can't be transmitted.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Wall on April 24, 2012 at 9:06pm

Hmmm Siobhan, I hope so too, about your boyfriend. My ex-husband had auto-immune issues when I married him, so I don't know if his problems are from me or not. Is it XMRV that you found out about? I'm surre ready for them to create an anti-virus med for that so we can at least try it. Fibro is so epidemic, it would save the gov't a ton on disability if they could find the cure or even something to control it with few side affects.

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Permalink Reply by twintch on April 27, 2012 at 5:42pm

ive been married for 28years, and have known my husband for over 30 years. he has never shown signs of fibr. i've had fibro since i was 15. it became so much worse after chemo. it could be a coincedence. not sure about chronic fatigue, i have a friend of 18yrs and no one in her family has shown any symptoms. i was told that a traumatic illness can start the CFS or FIBRO. info frm dr. im sorry about your boyfeiend.