Chronic Muscle Pain Syndrome: Understanding and Treating Fibrositis- The Body's Powerful Reaction to Deep-Rooted Stress

Chronic Muscle Pain Syndrome: Understanding and Treating Fibrositis- The Body's Powerful Reaction to Deep-Rooted Stress (1989) By Paul Davidson, M.D. ISBN: 0-394-56860-5

This book review may seem random, but I will also be covering books on different health topics. I picked this specific book because our current health system is forcing me to become an expert in fibromyalgia. I say forcing because it really is. A family member was diagnosed with fibromyalgia years ago and since then we have been bouncing from specialist to specialist and back and forth to the primary all because everyone says they can't help even though they were recommended by someone else. It is frustrating and it forces people to learn how to be doctors themselves because no one will help them. Because of all of this I am using all of my science and limited medical background to try and get a medical understanding to help my family member. This is unfortunately normal in our medical system. I figure that I would share the information I find, which is the overall goal of this blog any way, so that others can find additional resources to help themselves navigate health in our modern world and crazy medical system.

One of the first things that this book talks about is the history of fibromyalgia and the different names that it has been known as through the years. This is actually a thing that has been known for hundreds of years if not longer. Some doctors will tell you it is a new thing, but it is not and there is no excuse as to why by this point there is not more info on it. It does really seem that doctors don't care about the disease or the people that suffer from it. He also talks about how primary care doctors will send you to specialists to get treatment. The problem is that in today's medical world that the specialists send you back to the primary care doctor saying they can't help you and that it is the primary care doctor's job to take care of fibromyalgia. The primary care doctor is a generalist that doesn't have time to try and specialize in something because they are busy dealing with colds, sports exams, and the such. This book did talk about some treatments, but it seemed like he blamed fibromyalgia on either the lack of sleep or on a person's mental health. If it was this simple then treatment would be easy, but it's not. There was also a section of the book that recommended some different exercises. I think this is a good book for people to start with like myself, but I really feel like it was just trying to explain away the issue because if you have dealt with the disease for awhile what he recommended really doesn't work and just in a way is general health recommendations. I do not feel like Davidson is an expert in any way on the subject or that he should be fully trusted.

Note Highlights:

-back in the 1970s studies were showing a connection between fibromyalgia and poor sleep. (P43-44)

-"doctors can find major clues to the diagnosis by listening carefully as the patient relates his or her complaints instead of relying primarily on the results of laboratory and x-ray studies." (P48)

-Some disorders can mimic fibrositis like polymyalgia rheumatica, giant cell arteritis, multiple areas of tendinitis, and hypothyroidism. (P61)

-Prednisone has little to no effect on fibrositis. (P62)

-Stress can cause fatigue. "not in physical disease but in a mind wearied by stress, anxieties, tensions, and depression." (P102)

-stress can also cause headaches, irritable syndrome and disturbed sleep. (P103-104)

-General physicians will "relinquish the investigation and care of patients to rheumatologists, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, physiatrists, industrially based physicians, and dentists." (P109)

I found this book in the medical section at the college library on the Auraria Campus in Denver. Three different schools support this library, but even with that they have a limited selection of physical books. They only had two books on fibromyalgia and I checked them both out.