What are the causes of fibromyalgia?

  Fibromyalgia is a rheumatic disease with diffuse pain around the body as the main manifestation, and it is one of the common diseases in rheumatology departments in developed countries in Europe, America and Japan. The incidence of the disease increases with age, and is significantly more common in women than men. However, in China at present, the disease is still a short board for rheumatologists to understand, for the following reasons: 1, the patient’s subjective pain sensation is difficult to describe accurately and fluctuates with time, and can be spread around the body, or only in a few specific parts, or even in the consultation complaining of pain in the fingers, knees and other joint parts, or mainly in the neck and shoulders, low back pain, for rheumatologists to diagnose and differentiate Diagnosis has caused certain problems, middle-aged patients are often misdiagnosed as strain or degenerative diseases, and young patients are easily diagnosed as spondyloarthropathies; 2, objectively the doctor’s examination in addition to a dozen pressure points, the most common joint swelling and effusion, muscle weakness and inflammation and other manifestations do not exist, and auxiliary examinations are not specific findings, if the doctor does not know enough about the disease, often missed diagnosis.  In addition to musculoskeletal pain, patients often visit the doctor because of combined sleep disorders, memory loss, and fatigue. Even with better sleep and rest, they still feel unrefreshed in the morning and even have difficulty coping with their daily work. A considerable number of patients, because of the torture and distress of the disease, continue to visit major hospitals and specialties and even hospitalization, including neurology, pain medicine, orthopedics, psychiatry, etc., and spend a lot of money and time doing various blood tests and imaging examinations but get nothing. Some patients are diagnosed with anxiety disorders or depression. Some patients can have fibromyalgia in combination with chronic rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, etc. The pain of these patients requires the attention of rheumatologists to identify whether the primary disease is caused by active inflammation or by comorbid fibromyalgia.  Fibromyalgia can fluctuate due to emotional and internal stresses, sometimes for better or worse, and sometimes internal family conflicts and emergencies can significantly aggravate the condition, and in severe cases the patient can even develop a limp, be unable to walk, and other manifestations that can be easily misdiagnosed as arthritis. However, the absence of abnormalities in all objective tests helps rheumatologists to identify the condition.  Fibromyalgia, because of its non-inflammatory changes, does not cause joint destruction and disability like rheumatoid arthritis, nor does it affect the patient’s life expectancy, so the treatment of the disease is focused on improving the patient’s symptoms and improving the quality of life and work ability. Patients should relax and be optimistic after diagnosis, and cooperate with the doctor for treatment, most of them will improve significantly.