13 Mistakes Fibromyalgia Patients Make - Article Health

Navigating fibro
Dealing with the constant, daily pain of fibromyalgia can be tough. But the task can be even tougher if you fall into some common traps.

Everyone makes mistakes, but there are some missteps that can make it even harder to cope with fibromyalgia.

Not tracking your pain
"The problem with fibromyalgia is that patients are always in pain so it's hard to judge when things get better and when they don’t get better," says Bruce Baethge, MD, a rheumatologist with Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and Scott & White Healthcare, in Temple.

Expecting too much from medication
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three drugs for fibromyalgia: Lyrica (pregabalin), Cymbalta (duloxetine), and Savella (milnacipran).

Refusing to consider off-label drugs
Off-label drugs are those that are approved for use with one condition but frequently given to people with another condition.

For instance, fibromyalgia patients are often treated with antidepressants, even though not all antidepressants are specifically approved for this condition.


Not exploring alternatives
What’s considered an alternative treatment in conventional medicine may not be for fibromyalgia.


Sticking with the wrong doctor
Believe it or not, there are physicians out there who still think that fibromyalgia patients are making up the symptoms, probably because there’s so little known about the condition.

Denying that you’re sick
Many patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia will visit one physician after another trying to find a different opinion.

By all means, get a second opinion. But refusing to accept the diagnosis after a second, third, or fourth opinion means you’re losing precious time, which could be spent learning about and managing the condition.



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