Publication trends in chronic fatigue syndrome: Comparisons with fibromyalgia and fatigue: 1995-2004.

Friedberg F, Sohl S, Schmeizer B.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Stony Brook University, NY, USA.
OBJECTIVE: In order to identify publishing patterns in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), we compared the annual number of peer review articles for CFS, fibromyalgia (FM), and non-CFS fatigue over a recent decade (1995-2004).
METHOD: Citations were drawn from Ovid/Medline, PsychInfo, [...]

Characteristics and healthcare costs of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Berger A, Dukes E, Martin S, Edelsberg J, Oster G.
Policy Analysis, Inc. (PAI), Brookline, MA, USA.
Purpose: To examine the characteristics and healthcare costs of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients in clinical practice. Materials and methods: Using a US health-insurance database, we identified all patients, aged >/= 18 years, with any healthcare encounters for FMS (ICD-9-CM diagnosis [...]

Mouse genome will help identify causes of environmental disease

Research on the DNA of 15 mouse strains commonly used in biomedical studies is expected to help scientists determine the genes related to susceptibility to environmental disease. The body of data is now publicly available in a catalog of genetic variants, which displays the data as a mouse haplotype map, a tool that separates chromosomes [...]

Violence, stress, and somatic syndromes.

Crofford LJ.
Center for the Advancement of Women’s Health, University of Kentucky. lcrofford@uky.edu.
Syndromes characterized by pain, fatigue, mood disorder, cognitive dysfunction, and sleep disturbance have been referred to as stress-related somatic disorders by virtue of the observation that onset and exacerbation of symptoms occur with stress. These syndromes include but are not limited to fibromyalgia, chronic [...]

EULAR evidence based recommendations for the management of fibromyalgia syndrome.

Carville SF, Arendt-Nielsen S, Bliddal H, Blotman F, Branco JC, Buskilla D, Da Silva JA, Danneskiold-Samsøe B, Dincer F, Henriksson C, Henriksson K, Kosek K, Longley K, McCarthy GM, Perrot S, Puszczewicz MJ, Sarzi-Puttini P, Silman A, Späth M, Choy EH.
King’s College London, United Kingdom.
OBJECTIVE: To develop evidence based recommendations for the management of fibromyalgia [...]

Fibromyalgia: a rheumatologic diagnosis?

Endresen GK.
Department of Rheumatology, The National Hospital Rikshospitalet, Forskningsvn. 2, Block B, 0027, Oslo, Norway, gerhard.endresen@rikshospitalet.no.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a medically unexplained or functional somatic syndrome (FSS). The two classification criteria are chronic widespread pain (CWP) and the finding of 11/18 tender points (TP). FM overlaps and co-occurs with other FSSs, and auxiliary symptoms that are [...]

Adverse reactions of natural health products/drugs under-reported, study shows

The adverse effects of using prescription drugs side by side with natural health products (NHP) are being under-reported, so the potential risks may be underestimated by health-care professionals and the public, a study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada shows.
A literature review and survey of 132 pharmacists revealed that while 47 per cent [...]

Researchers discover gene responsible for Restless Legs Syndrome

An international team of researchers has identified the first gene associated with Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), a common sleep disorder affecting tens of millions of people worldwide. The findings will be published July 18 in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and will appear in an upcoming printed edition of the [...]

Great expectations — Study looks at why placebo effect varies from person to person

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Why do some people experience a “placebo effect” that makes them feel better when they receive a sham treatment they believe to be real — while other people don’t respond at all to the same thing, or even feel worse”
A new study from the University of Michigan Health System may help [...]

Dysautonomia, fibromyalgia and reflex dystrophy.

Eisinger J.
Unit Infomyalgies, Centre Hospitalier, 83056 Toulon, France. infomyalgies@wanadoo.fr.
ABSTRACT: Autonomic nervous system dysfunction observed in fibromyalgia, characterized without exception by a sympathetic hyperactivity and hyporeactivity, has been reported. However, several studies demonstrated reduced levels of norepinephrine and neuropeptide Y at rest and after tilt table in some patients, which was improved by beta-stimulating agents. These [...]