Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for fibromyalgia

Cochrane: Researchers of the Cochrane Collaboration conducted a review of research about the effects of antidepressants classified as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on fibromyalgia. After searching for all relevant studies up to June 2014, they found seven studies that compared SSRIs with a fake medication. These studies included a total of 383 people. Most participants were middle-aged women. The SSRIs that they studied were citalopram, fluoxetine and paroxetine. Five studies were each funded by pharmaceutical companies, and two studies were funded by public institutions.

Is it fibromyalgia or arthritis?

Hokkaido: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is an obstinate disease with an enigmatic etiology. Since there was no known structural and/or pathological evidence explaining it, many physicians denied its presence, which in turn made patients suffer psychological stress in addition to the physical pain. In a study, the researchers focused on a subset of T cells (a type of white blood cell) called MAIT cells, and found that analysis of the frequency of MAIT cells and of the antigen expression profile in MAIT cells allowed to not only diagnose FMS but also distinguish it from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA)–both of which show similar indications.

Bladder Pain Syndrome

Source: Pr Christian SAUSSINE.MD Orphanet

Bladder Pain Syndrome (BPS), also known is interstitial cystitis (IC) and painful bladder syndrome, is characterised by pelvic pain associated with bladder filling, pollakiuria (abnormally frequent urination) with a voiding frequency of more than eight urinations per day and more than two urinations per night, cystoscopic lesions (petechiae i.e a reddish spot containing blood that appears in inner membrane of the bladder as a result of localized hemorrhage, Hunner's ulcers i.e areas of inflammation on the bladder wall) revealed by a bladder hydrodistention test, and/or histological anomalies such as inflammatory mononuclear cell infiltrates and tissue granulation, in the absence of infection or any other pathology.

Fibromyalgia

Author: Dr Peremarty MD: Sleep and general medicine
2014/05/08

Fibromyalgia is a chronic muscular skeletic pathology described as «functional» [1], characterized mainly by diffuse pains, disabling and unexplained.
Tiredness is, here, often in the background. It results, according to the sick person, from the difficulty to face daily life with pains (of needle or burning sensation type) coming from any part of the body.
Recent studies tend to establish a parallel between fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome which could share a common physiopathological mechanism.
"Clinophilia" [2], that need to lie down in order to get some rest as often as possible, leads, sooner or later, to insomnia("wanting to sleep").
Statistics put forward an illness in which 80% of the sick persons are women, of late appearance, which would affect 2 to 3% of the population.
In our opinion, these numbers underestimate the existence of male or infantile forms of the disease that escape the actual recruitment criteria.
NB : "Fibromyalgia can evolve during years with a constant painful background punctuated with outbursts which often cause an important functional disturbance. Yet, according to the French Society of Rheumatology, its frequence decreases in a marked manner after 60 years to become exceptional after 70 years".