Fibromyalgia and Panic Disorder
Many studies have shown a link between fibromyalgia and generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder but the way they are linked is still not fully understood. While both are considered chronic conditions, both have no cure and neither of them are fully understood.
Fibromyalgia is a common disorder which causes widespread chronic pain and fatigue. People who have this condition typically have pain and tenderness in all four quadrants of the body, along with eighteen specific tender points in the neck, arms, shoulders, back, hips, and legs. Along with the pain and fatigue, people will also experience trouble sleeping, migraine and cluster headaches, nerve pain, allodynia, and cognitive difficulties that affect
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It is different from normal fear or anxiety to a stressful situation or event, instead these panic attacks can happen without warning and for no reason at all. A person with panic disorder has developed anxiety or fear of having another panic attack, and will do whatever they can to avoid what they think causes them. Often times panic attacks are easily mistook for a heart attack because the symptoms are so similar. Difficulty breathing, pounding heart, chest pain, dizziness, shaking, choking sensation, tingling and numbness in the extremities accompanied by an intense fear that the person is losing control or about to die are characteristic signs of Panic …show more content…
Depression is also common among those who have both Fibromyalgia and anxiety. Anxiety and depression can form in anyone who deals with chronic pain, because the symptoms are so sporadic and often no underlying cause can be found. Support from friends or loved ones can also be faint as the condition itself is hard to understand. This can make sufferers feel hopeless and has a detrimental impact on their lives, such as missing work, failing at school, financial problems and even substance abuse. Having both conditions can be debilitating, and finding ways to cope is a tiresome process as often the people who have been diagnosed are not ready to accept that its psychological in nature. There has been a slight breakthrough,
Panic disorder- sudden intense and unprovoked feelings of terror and dread. People who suffer from this disorder generally develop strong fears about when and where their next panic attack will occur, and often restrict their activities as a result.
Being diagnosed with a chronic illness is a life-altering event. During this time, life is not only difficult for the patient, but also for their loved ones. Families must learn to cope together and to work out the best options for the patient and the rest of the family. Although it may not be fair at times, things may need to be centered on or around the patient no matter what the circumstance. (Abbott, 2003) Sacrifices may have to be made during difficult times. Many factors are involved when dealing with chronic illnesses. Coping with chronic illnesses alter many different emotions for the patients and the loved ones. Many changes occur that are very different and difficult to get used to. (Abbott, 2003) It is not easy for someone to sympathize with you when they haven’t been in the situation themselves. No matter how many books they read or people they talk to, they cannot come close to understanding.
Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a musculoskeletal illness (which causes chronic pain) and a chronic fatigue disorder. It can also change sleep patterns and cause the following: digestive disorders, chronic headaches, painful menstrual periods, temperature sensitivity, morning stiffness, numbness or tingling of extremities, and even cognitive memory problems. The name fibromyalgia comes from "fibro" in Latin meaning tissue, "my" in Greek meaning muscle, and "algia" (also Greek) meaning pain.(source 5)
Neurofibromatosis Type 1 is one of the most common genetic disorders affecting more than 100,000 Americans. Although the majority of cases show a distinct inheritance pattern, still 30-40 percent of cases arise from spontaneous mutation in the Nf1 gene. Common symptoms of the disease include brown spots on the skin known as café au lait spots, neurofibromas, growths on the eyes and optic nerve, and abnormal development of the spine, skull, and tibia. Around 50 percent of patients with Neurofibromatosis type 1 suffer from painful skeletal manifestations due to abnormal development of the bones. The exact cause of the skeletal abnormalities associated with the disease is still unclear, but the lesions are thought to result from bone cell autonomous mutations, in which only the genotypically altered bone cells are affected.
... gastrointestinal tract, causing stomach cramps that are consistent. Sleep disturbances or lack of good sleep, usually caused by some form of sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome (RLS) that does not allow the body to completely relax and fall into an uninterrupted deep sleep. Temperature sensitivity, when it’s warm, it feels too hot for them or vise versa for cold or cooler weather. It affects Sensitivity to loud noises or bright lights, limiting their ability to be in a noisy environment like a restaurant or even drive a vehicle at night. Cognitive issues with thinking and memory, such as concentration or disorganized thinking. It also causes the inability to stay focused and cognitive recognition, such as seeing a pen on the counter but not being able to say the word pen. This is very common with fibromyalgia and is often called “fibro fog” (Huffington Post).
So what is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or CFS? I would like to be able to explain exactly what CFS is, but true to the nature of what is known about this illness, there is no precise way to describe CFS. Rather, the disease is identified through a number of symptoms (both physical and psychological), including unexplained and persistent fatigue of new or definite onset, concurrent with short-term memory loss, sore throat, tender axillary lymph nodes, muscle pain and unrefreshing sleep, among a number of others, for a duration of at least six months. As is probably evident, the above symptoms, in addition to being signs of CFS, are also the same (or very similar) symptoms experienced in such diseases as Lymes disease and "the flu." There are symptoms that involve the Gastrointestinal Tract (GI), immunological-related symptoms, symptoms of psychiatric disease like depression, sexual malfunction, endocrine dysfunction-basically every system in the body. This is part of the reason why CFS is hard to detect, and is usually chosen as a diagnosis only at the exclusion of all other possible ailments. The other difficulty that lies with diagnosing CFS is that there is no way of measuring the level of a person's fatigue-there is no way for a physician to tell whether a patient complaining of fatigue is experiencing the type of fatigue associated with CFS or he/she is just extremely tired and overworked.
The best treatment for Fibromyalgia is exercise. Exercise is hard to do when you are in constant pain, but eventually, exercise will help you control the pain. It’s important to start out slow and then increase your work-outs a little at a time. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself right away. The five best exercises for Fibromyalgia are walking, Yoga, swimming, Pilates and biking. WALKING Walking is a great beginner exercise for someone who has Fibromyalgia. Start walking just ten minutes a day for at least five days a week. Every week increase your time by five minutes. You’re going to be extremely sore, but don’t stop. The more you walk, the better you will feel.
This case was interesting and was chosen for this SOAP note and discussion. Several things were captured in this learning opportunity. First of all, the assessment piece needed to include all of the potential differentials. I discovered myself relying on patterned learning to recall what areas should this focused exam include. Headaches are broad symptoms that can potentially result from many system alterations and can be related to many differentials. Initially, I considered migraine/tension headache history, acute illness (infection/sinusitis), acute injury (trauma or brain bleed), cerebral abnormality (aneurysm/stroke), and secondary causes related to uncontrolled HTN. I then began to narrow the differentials the most likely diagnosis such as tension-type headache based on the details obtained from the history/physical. Next, I began to consider treatment for tension-type headaches. The area of learning in the case was related to the additional treatment with Lyrica for the headaches. I considered the typical interventions such as rest, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, stress reduction, diet, and trigger recognition. I considered the influence of co-morbid condition management, such as HTN, DM, and obesity. I had not considered that the HA potentially be related to her fibromyalgia (FM). According
Severe anxiety, which can be described as an episode of terror, is referred to as a panic attack. Panic attacks can be extremely frightening. People who experience panic attacks over a prolonged time period may become victims of agoraphobia, which is a psychiatric disorder that is closely associated with the panic disorder. Patients with Agoraphobia avoid certain places or situations such as airplanes, crowded theaters, a grocery store or anyplace from which escape might be difficult. It is said that Agoraphobia can be so severe that it has made certain individuals housebound.
I have always known that an individual can have a panic attack, but never knew it was a such thing as panic disorder. And just by your having panic attacks does not guarantee you to have a panic disorder. My father has panic attacks, although I have never witness him having one he often tells me about them. After reading about the psychological disorders this does have me intrigued as to why panic attacks
This group is geared toward men living with fibromyalgia. There are multiple forums to choose from including spirituality, rants and raves, legal issues, and humor. There is even a place for teens.
There are five moveable lumbar vertebrae which are connected by paired facet joints located between the articular processes of the pedicles and by the anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments. Intervertebral foramina are formed by notches in the articular processes of adjacent pedicles of two vertebrae; the disk is anterior and medial to the foramen. Nerve roots of L1-L5 descend from the conus medullaris (termination of the adult spinal cord, typically located between T10 and L1 vertebral levels) and exit at the neural foramina of their respective level.
Most of us do not think about our shoulders and the scope of activities that they help us perform, such as tossing a ball or reaching that itchy spot in the middle of our back.
Many people do not understand what it is like to have an anxiety disorder, and like many other things foreign to people, criticism is the first action taken towards. Panic disorders can be mistaken to someone who is unaware of the disorder as just a certain attitude. Allen R. Miller states that the best way for others to help a person struggling with an anxiety disorder is to be supportive and not to “perpetuate” the person’s symptoms.
There is a fine line between anxiety and depression. A line that is often times blurred. Although there are differences between the two, they also share many similarities, which can lead to false diagnoses for patients. It only gets more complicated when both illnesses are present. For example, The National Institute of Mental Health (2009) did a study of anxiety disorders and found that 53.7% of people reported they also experienced major depression as a secondary condition. These researchers also stated that people who are severely depressed do become anxious. In order to have a better understanding of anxiety and depression one must first clearly define the two conditions, understand the causes, look at the symptoms involved, and review the different treatment options available.