- Researchers say the consequences of fibromyalgia go beyond muscle and joint pain.
- They say people with the chronic condition have a higher risk of suicide, infection, and accidents.
- Some experts say these higher risks may be caused not only by the discomfort of having fibromyalgia but also the tendency of some medical professionals to dismiss the severity of the condition.
Far more is known about the symptoms of fibromyalgia, which include body-wide pain and fatigue, than what causes it.
Now, a new study published in the journal RMD Open suggests that the consequences of fibromyalgia may go far beyond the day-to-day discomfort it causes.
People with fibromyalgia also have a higher rate of suicide, accidents, and infections than those who do not have the chronic condition, according to researchers Dr. Yulia Treister-Goltzman and Dr. Roni Peleg of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
In their research, the scientists reviewed eight previously published studies on fibromyalgia that also detailed the negative consequences of the condition.
Treister-Goltzman and Peleg wrote that the three-fold risk of suicide among people with fibromyalgia could be due to the strain of living with constant pain as well as the stress of not having their disease taken seriously.
“Studies have shown that medical staff are reluctant to accept fibromyalgia as a medical condition and they face emotional and psychological difficulties interacting with these patients and coping with their disorder,” the study noted.
“Being left crippled, in severe pain, with no energy and severe secondary cognitive dysfunction, and an average 32-½-pound weight gain secondary to metabolic changes devastates people,” Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, a fibromyalgia expert who has written numerous books on the condition, told Medical News Today.
“Then to have some physicians who are simply too lazy to take the time to read the research and learn about these conditions imply … that the person is crazy…
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