The traditional label of “psychiatric patient” for fibromyalgia patients has ceased to make sense today in parallel to the increase in knowledge among professionals of the characteristics of this disease, which can affect approximately one million people throughout Spain, and the drug appearance and new treatments that will improve your quality of life. The Rheumatology specialist of the General University Hospital of Ciudad Real, Marcos Paulino Huertas, who was last Wednesday at the conference organized by the association of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue Trébol de Puertollano on the occasion of the international day of this condition, revealed to Lanza el Los Advances harvested in recent years in the investigation of the disease and its treatment, along with future prospects.
With the aim of eliminating any doubt, Marcos Paulino Huertas explained that fibromyalgia “is a disease that produces diffuse pain, extreme tiredness and affects concentration and memory.” Women in their forties and fifties are the most affected and according to the different approaches carried out, it could be present in some 20,000 people in a province like Ciudad Real. Of special interest is that those with fibromyalgia share that when they undergo the first medical tests to obtain a diagnosis, they give normal results, which led them to be treated as psychiatric patients in the past.
The rheumatologist of the General University Hospital of Ciudad Real said that today it is possible to diagnose fibromyalgia not only by discarding other diseases in consultation, but with advanced and specific techniques. In this way, the tests allow us to verify that “patients experience unusual changes in nerve endings and in the brain,” so, according to the expert, “they are more sensitive to pain than other people.” Paulino Huertas emphasized that “through studies such as functional resonance, it is clear that neuronal and brain activity is different.”
The rheumatologist said that currently the percentage of fibromyalgia detection is very important, due to the increase in health training in this disease and also due to the important awareness that has existed with the introduction, for example, of his study in the curricula. of medical schools. There have also been advances in chronic fatigue, a “similar” disease, characterized by severe exhaustion, although it can sometimes affect the immune system and affects half of fibromyalgia patients.
Although fibromyalgia currently has no cure, Marcos Paulino Huertas said that related research aims to “increase the quality of life of chronic patients, so they can access effective treatments.” Without official medicines for the treatment of fibromyalgia in Europe, although there are three in the United States and two of them are used by European specialists, although at the community level “they are not considered effective enough”, therefore, they are not recognized by The institutions, Marcos Paulino Huertas, on the other hand, said that “new treatments and more medicines will be launched soon,” which are now in the trial period. In fact, the rheumatologist of the city said with hopeful air that “promising new therapies will be coming out” for the patients.
Recent research also indicates that this medical condition, which may be linked to female sex due to hormonal issues and that has a genetic component as it shows that the daughters and granddaughters of patients have eight times the risk of suffering from it, may be related to “ an abrupt change ”on a physical or psychic level, or a“ stress situation ”; so that those genetically predisposed to suffer from it could develop it in those cases. In addition, the specialist Marcos Paulino Huertas said that “people who suffer from anxiety or depression may have a greater ease to develop it,” he added, “not because they are somatic patients, but because the neurotransmitters of mood are related to perception of pain ”, determinants for fibromyalgia.
The disease may show some of its symptoms from childhood, with “bone or growth pain”; and the specialist recommended to go to the family doctor to determine the prognosis as soon as possible when there is a headache or general and there is a family history, especially because family doctors “are the main specialists in fibromyalgia and are very prepared” to treat it.
