Saturday

Measuring symptoms - new Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Criteria


Written and published August 2010.
Measuring severity of symptoms would be a useful thing to do in any chronic condition, don't you think? Saying "how bad is the pain on a scale of 1 to 10" is useful, especially as a follow up tool, but how do you measure the many other symptoms of fibromyalgia including unrefreshed sleep, fatigue and cognitive symptoms? 

Has anyone with fibromyalgia been given a cognitive test? How many of us have undergone a sleep study? I certainly haven't. 

The widespread pain index (WPI) and the symptom severity (SS) scale score are 2 new measurements designed by The American College of Rheumatology.

The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity.  It includes many symptoms including Nervousness, Chest pain, Blurred vision, Fever, Diarrhea, Dry mouth, Itching, Wheezing, Raynauld’s, and Hives/welts.

New Clinical Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Criteria – Part 1: See the pdf here. 

Hopefully this criteria will help with getting a correct diagnosis and the monitoring of the symptoms in fibromyalgia.

New Clinical Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Criteria – Part 1.


2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:50 PM

    IF YOU CAN HELP AM VERY SORE AND FEEL DAMN AWFUL IN PAIN CANT SLEEP IF CAN HELP LOVE IT CANT COPE WITH fibromyligia IT HURTING ME LOTS THANKS JEANETTE BARNES

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  2. So sorry to hear this Jeanette. The best thing I find, late at night, if I can't sleep is distraction. i watch an old movie or go on the internet but always in a comfortable place with a pillow and a quilt so i can just fall asleep where i am.

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Thanks for your input