Fibromyalgia (FM) is a long term condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body. Doctors used to use “tender points” to help them form a diagnosis. These are areas on the body that feel tender after pressure. However, recent guidelines have phased these out and introduced new diagnostic criteria.
The main features of FM are chronic pain (which may be mild or severe), extreme tiredness, and disrupted sleep. Depression or anxiety may also arise from FM’s ongoing impact on everyday life.
It is hard for healthcare providers to diagnose FM from the symptoms of pain alone. Many other factors should come into consideration while forming a diagnosis. For this reason, doctors no longer use the tender points described above to diagnose FM.
In this article, we explain what the tender points are and the current diagnostic criteria that have replaced them.
What are tender points?
Possible tender points of FM include the outer elbows, the upper chest, and the back of the head.
Doctors used to use the phrase “tender points” (or “trigger points”) to describe sensitive areas on the body that become painful with a standard amount of pressure to the area.
In the past, they would diagnose the condition according to a set of criteria that identified 18 tender points on the body. To qualify for a diagnosis of FM, a person had to experience tenderness in 11 of these tender points.
The previous tender points of FM included the following areas on both sides of the body:
the upper chest
the back of the head
the outer elbows
the knees
the hips
the tops of the shoulders
However, there were multiple issues with these criteria. For example, using tender points was actually contributing to the overdiagnosis of FMTrusted Source.
Also, people with FM may not experience constant pain. The pain may be intermittent, and it can even move to different areas of the body.
Other medical conditions, such as polymyalgia rheumatica, can also cause tenderness in these areas.
Many rheumatic diseases — such as Lyme disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Sjogren’s syndrome — can also cause widespread pain and tender areas.
Another issue is that FM is not simply a pain condition. It can also cause cognitive symptoms, including memory problems, anxiety, and depression. FM can also contribute to fatigue and waking up feeling unrefreshed.
For this reason, a diagnosis of FM is more complicated than identifying pain at specific points on the body. In 2010, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) updated their diagnostic guidelinesTrusted Source to reflect this.
At this point, doctors slowly stopped relying on tender points to diagnose FM.
Current diagnostic criteria
Doctors no longer use the tender points to diagnose FM.
As the medical community’s understanding of FM advanced, the ACR developed new criteria to aid diagnosis. These criteria are as follows.
Widespread pain index
These criteria do not rely on tender points that respond to pressure from a finger. Instead, they take into account the number of areas in which the individual has felt pain over the past week.
The doctor assesses these areas and generates a widespread pain index (WPI) score on a scale from 0 to19.
The areas that qualify include the:
hip
upper and lower back
shoulder girdle
upper and lower arm
upper and lower leg
chest
neck
abdomen
jaw
Some healthcare providers may also use these criteria to rule out other conditions.
Symptom severity scale
A healthcare provider may also use a symptom severity (SS) scale, which takes into account other FM symptoms, such as fatigue and depression. They will rank the severity of each symptom on a scale from 0 to 3, with 0 indicating no symptom at all and 3 indicating a severe presentation of this symptom.
On the same scale, doctors will also rank the presence of non-pain symptoms. Receiving a score of 0 indicates no other symptoms, whereas a 3 would suggest a large number of symptoms.
They will then combine these SS scores and establish a final score out of 12.
People who meet the following criteria are likely to have FM:
a WPI score of more than 7 out of 19 and an SS scale score of 5 or higher, or a WPI score between 3 and 6 and an SS scale score of 9 or higher
the presence of symptoms at a similar level for 3 months or longer
there is no other condition or disorder present that adequately explains the areas and extent of the pain
Some doctors use modified criteria in which they rank the presence of other symptoms as a yes or no choice, rather than having their patients describe the severity of these symptoms.
These criteria account far better for the presence of non-pain symptoms in people with FM.
Other symptoms
A person with FM may have difficulty sleeping.
As well as experiencing widespread pain, people with FM may also have headaches, difficulty sleeping, and fatigue. Depression, anxiety, and concentration problems are also possible symptoms.
Some people have many of these symptoms, while others may only have a few. Symptoms are also highly personal to each individual, so no single test can measure them.
When to see a doctor
It is hard to measure pain and fatigue because people may experience and report it differently.
Diagnosing FM is complex. People who suspect that they may have the condition should seek consultation with a doctor who is familiar with it and similar conditions.
As many symptoms of FM are general to begin with, it can be difficult to know when to see a doctor.
However, a person should see their healthcare provider if they feel widespread pain for more than a few weeks, especially if they are experiencing additional symptoms, such as trouble sleeping or concentrating.
Complications
FM is not a life threatening condition, but it can interfere with everyday function and quality of life. People with the condition may find that it can affect their employment, family, and social life.
Anxiety and depression may also be complications of FM, as withdrawing from activities due to symptoms can contribute to emotional issues.
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