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Newport Beach, CA (PRWEB) January 22, 2012

Fibromyalgia is not only a difficult illness for patients who are forced to live with chronic pain and other co-morbid conditions, it is also perplexing to physicians who often do not have the tools necessary to feel comfortable in making an accurate diagnosis or to prescribe a successful treatment regimen. Dr. Scott Stoney from California Rehabilitation and Pain Management Center in Newport Beach, CA, has recently researched fibromyalgia, medications, and rehabilitation strategies, and highlights the usefulness of the Fibromyalgia Oswestry Pain Questionnaire as a tool to measure pain management efficacy in this patient population. New research shows that in order to have optimal rehabilitation outcomes in a fibromyalgia patient, the treatment should be tailored to the individual patient by addressing exercise, diet and psychological aspects as well as drugs.

It wasnt until 1987 that the American Medical Association (AMA) acknowledged fibromyalgia as a true illness. Since the diagnosis is relatively new in the western medical community, many patients see multiple physicians before being diagnosedwith a resulting delay, or even lack, of treatment. The average woman with FM has been reported as having less functional ability related to ADLs (activities of daily living) than the average community-dwelling woman in her 80s (according to article titled “A Comparison of Physical Functioning Performance and Strength in Women with Fibromyalgia and Older Women Who Are Healthy.” Phys Ther. Nov 2006). In 1998 a multi-center study published in the June issue of Journal of Rheumatology revealed that 26% of the fibromyalgia patients surveyed were receiving some form of disability payment. 57.1% of those with FM left the workforce because of their symptoms of FM. Among those who continued in their jobs, the majority (59.4%) had reduced the time they spent working.

According to Regina P. Gilliland, MD, Department of Internal Medicine and of the Division of Rehab Medicine at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, investigators believe that a successful fibromyalgia rehabilitation program involves a multidisciplinary team of professionals and various modalities individualized for each patient (see article titled Physical medicine and a rehabilitation approach to treating fibromyalgia by Pellegrino M.). The team should include a physician, a medical psychologist, physical and massage therapists, and an exercise physiologist. The team members should have expertise in the treatment of soft-tissue disorders.

According to Dr. Stoney, gradual graded exercise is necessary for fibromyalgia patients. They need to start with small and limited exercise program and graduate very slowly. Over-exercise tends to flare the patients condition and lead to poor exercise compliance. Traditional therapy or exercise rehabilitation may worsen the patients symptoms. Monitoring during rehabilitation is also critically important. As goals are met and symptoms change, the physician must modify the rehabilitation prescription to meet the individual’s current needs.

A number of randomized, controlled trials of multidisciplinary treatment and exercisecombined with education and/or cognitive behavioral therapyshowed that patients with fibromyalgia had improvements on a six-minute walk with significant decreases in pain and beneficial efficacy. One randomized, controlled trial of multidisciplinary rehabilitation showed improvement in health-related outcomes in a nonclinical, community-based setting at 15-month follow-up. A published study that evaluated the impact of a physical therapy-based educational program on patients with fibromyalgia found that the program had a positive impact on patients’ well-being (see article titled “Long-term Follow Up of a Physical Therapy Programme for Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome” by Havermark AM). The study concluded, however, that the program had no effect on the other symptoms of fibromyalgia.

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Tags: Fibromyalgia, living, Provides, research, strategies, those

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