All About Fibromyalgia A Guide for Patients and Their Families

by Wallace, Daniel J.; Wallace, Janice Brock

• ISBN13: 9780195147537
• ISBN10: 0195147537
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This year, six million Americans--most of them women--will go to their doctors, complaining of an illness they have no name for. The majority will be turned away or treated for depression; the few who persist will go to an average of four doctors before they receive the correct diagnosis: fibromyalgia. In their earlier Making Sense of Fibromyalgia , noted medical writer Janice Wallace and Dr. Daniel Wallace, a leading expert on this disorder, provided a comprehensive guide--for both patients and professionals--to this little known and poorly understood syndrome. Now, in All About Fibromyalgia , the Wallaces provide a thoroughly revised and updated version of that highly successful volume, incorporating a wealth of new information. This edition provides the current understanding of the disease as well as the latest drug treatments--all laid out in clear and accessible language. As in the previous volume, the authors provide a detailed, yet clear explanation of the disease. Fibromyalgia, they explain, is a form of chronic neuromuscular pain, a pain-amplification syndrome brought on by abnormal interactions between hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, and the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes the syndrome occurs spontaneously; in most cases, the authors write, it is associated with trauma, stress, such conditions as lupus and hypothyroidism, and over forty microbes, from hepatitis to Epstein-Barr to Lyme disease. Drawing on actual cases to illustrate their points, the authors help break through the isolation that patients often feel when doctors misdiagnose or simply ignore their symptoms. All About Fibromyalgia addresses a desperate need for information on this disease and offers reassurance to patients and their families.

Author Biography

Daniel Wallace, M.D., is an attending physician who has served as Clinical Chief of Rheumatology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and has treated hundreds of victims of fibromyalgia. He is the author of The Lupus Book and co-author of All About Osteoarthritis, both by Oxford. Janice Wallace is a freelance medical writer. They live in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Preface	ix
Fibromyalgia Made Simple: A Parable	xiii
Part I The Whys and Wherefores of Fibromyalgia	3	(18)
How Our Understanding of Fibromyalgia Evolved	5	(4)
What is Fibromyalgia?	9	(5)
Who Gets Fibromyalgia and Why?	14	(7)
Part II Basic Science and Fibromyalgia	21	(30)
Why and How Do We Hurt?	23	(11)
What's Wrong with My Muscles?	34	(4)
How Do Stress, Sleep, Hormones, and the Immune System Interact and Relate to Fibromyalgia?	38	(7)
What is the Autonomic Nervous System?	45	(6)
Part III How and Where the Body Can Be Affected by Fibromyalgia	51	(20)
Generalized Complaints	53	(3)
``I'm Stiff and Achy''-Musculoskeletal Complaints	56	(3)
Tingles, Shocks, Wires, and Neurologic Complaints	59	(6)
Insights into Insides: Chest, Cardiovascular, and Other Concerns	65	(6)
Part IV The Clinical Spectrum of Fibromyalgia	71	(30)
What are the Regional and Localized Forms of Fibromyalgia?	73	(6)
What Conditions are Associated with Fibromyalgia?	79	(15)
Controversial Syndromes and Their Relationship to Fibromyalgia	94	(7)
Part V The Evaluation of Fibromyalgia Patients	101	(24)
What Happens at a Fibromyalgia Consultation?	103	(7)
Are you Sure It's Really Fibromyalgia?	110	(8)
I'm Not Crazy!	118	(7)
Part VI Improving Your Quality of Life	125	(36)
Influences of Lifestyle and Environment on Fibromyalgia	127	(8)
The Influence of Exercise and Rehabilitation on the Mind and Body	135	(12)
How to Overcome Fibromyalgia	147	(14)
Part VII Medicines and Other Therapies Used for Fibromyalgia	161	(50)
Medicines that Work for Fibromyalgia	163	(12)
Drugs that are Useful in Selected Fibromyalgia patients	175	(16)
Behind the Hype: Unproven, Experimental, Herbal, and Innovative Remedies	191	(12)
Work and Disability	203	(8)
Part VIII Where Are We Headed?	211	(10)
What's the Prognosis?	213	(3)
The Future Holds a Lot of Hope	216	(5)
Appendix 1: Fibromyalgia Resource Materials	221	(8)
Appendix 2: Fibromyalgia: A Complementary Medicine Doctor's Perspective	229	(6)
Glossary	235	(12)
Index	247