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A disease characterised by overall skeletal
muscle pain, with a painful sensation when
pressure is put on specific points (painful
points) and chronic fatigue.
Fibromyalgia is frequent. Approximately 2
to 6% of the population suffers from it and it
affects mainly women.
What are the symptoms?
Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes mus-
cle pain and fatigue (tiredness). Someti-
mes, the pain starts in a general way and
in others, in specific parts of the body, such
as the spinal column, shoulder, back, and
spreads from there. It is often referred to
as discomfort or a burning sensation. So-
metimes, the symptom could be muscle
By Dr. Román Rodríguez Barrigüete
FCC Medical Services
spasms. The frequency varies depending
on the time of day, the level of activity, cli-
mate changes, and lack of sleep or stress.
Besides pain, fibromyalgia can cause other
symptoms, such as overall rigidity, especia-
lly when getting up in the morning, or a tin-
gling sensation, especially in the hands. Up
to 90% of people suffering from fibromyal-
gia are tired during the entire day.
70-80% of patients experience sleeping
disorders and the quality of sleep is not
good (I wake up more tired than when I go
to bed”), and the pain gets worse when
you don’t have a good night’s sleep. They
can sleep without a problem, but the deep
sleep is interrupted.
Other symptoms could include anxiety or
depression, lack of memory, difficulty in
concentration, painful menstruation, irrita-
ble colon, dry mouth and eyes.
Fibromyalgia
What are the causes of fibromyalgia?
The causes of fibromyalgia are not known.
The threshold of pain is different in each one
of us. Fibromyalgia is an anomaly in the per-
ception of pain and stimuli, which are not
painful, are perceived as such. Some scien-
tists believe that the origin of fibromyalgia
could be genetic. Some people develop the
disease after identifiable processes, such
as a bacterial or viral infection, a car acci-
dent, a marital separation, problems with
children, etc. In other cases, it appears after
another known disease hampers the quality
of life (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythema-
tosus, etc.).
These triggering agents do not seem to
be the cause of the disease but rather,
that they trigger them in an individual who