Why is Fibromyalgia Syndrome an Unacceptable Diagnosis?

I was watching a YouTube lecture about fibromyalgia. (I wish I could remember the name.) The doctor giving the lecture told his students, “Telling a patient they have fibromyalgia is like telling them they have a fever, this is not an acceptable diagnosis.”

I immediately turned the TV up!

The lecturing doctor continued and I am just summarizing his major talking points. The doctor’s reasoning behind Fibromyalgia Syndrome not being an acceptable diagnosis is as follows;

• In order for the patient to get well, each fever must be treated according to the type they have. How did the fever start? When did the fever start? What symptoms are presenting with fever? Is it due to a viral infection, flu, or a cold? How high is the fever? Is this an adult or child? A patient must be treated according to their specific type, age, and symptoms of a fever.
• To correctly treat and diagnose fibromyalgia you must ask and find the answer to some very specific questions. How did the fibromyalgia start? What are the symptoms currently presenting with the fibromyalgia? When did the symptoms start? Fibromyalgia has layers to treat. Think of it like an onion and you are peeling back layers; physical, mental, and emotional … Fibromyalgia Syndrome as an all-inclusive diagnosis is not acceptable.
• The common denominators here are how, when, and what. How did your patient get fibromyalgia? When did they begin feeling the symptoms of fibromyalgia? What kind of specific symptoms are they currently experiencing? All this must be taken into consideration so you may begin to treat that fibromyalgia sufferer as an individual. Just as you must know the root cause of a fever before treating it, you must also with fibromyalgia!

In conclusion, I will add, Fibromyalgia Syndrome was officially entered into the International Classification of Diseases Classification Manual (ICD-10-CM) on October 1, 2015. This manual is used as a diagnostic manual worldwide by the medical community. Fibromyalgia Syndrome was finally legitimized as a disease. Needless to say, we have a long road ahead of us to be able to decipher the varying types of this disease on a case by case basis.

I don’t have any answers, only more questions, but this is definitely a start in the right direction for the medical community.

~Kim