Korean Journal of Family Medicine

"fibromyalgia"

Original Articles

Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Medically Unexplained Chronic Widespread Pain: A Primary Care Center Study: Kye Hwa Lee, Cheol Hwan Kim, Ho Cheol Shin, Eun Ju Sung; Korean J Fam Med 2011;32(5):277-284. Published online July 28, 2011; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4082/kjfm.2011.32.5.277

Abstract
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Background

Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is known as a common symptom of several organic and psychological disorders. Although medically unexplained CWP (MUE) has lots of clinical distress symptoms, there were no distinct symptoms or signs. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate clinical distress symptoms of MUE distinct from those of medically explained CWP (ME).

Methods

One hundred nine patients with CWP were enrolled in the study. We classified the study subjects into three groups depending on their medical problems associated with CWP: organic group (ORG), psychological group (PSY), and MUE. All subjects were asked to fill out self-report questionnaires consisting of clinical distress scales including the Korean version of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ-K), fatigue scale, depression scale, and stress scale. And physicians examined 18 tender points over their entire body of the subjects.

Results

MUE patients had higher FIQ-K and fatigue severity scores than ORG patients (all P < 0.05). The average number of tender points were 11.33 in MUE patients, 6.48 in ORG patients and 5.02 in PSY patients and statistically significant (P < 0.0001). There were no statistically different factors between MUE and PSY patients with exception for the number of tender points. Depressive symptom was the highest in PSY patients but not statistically different from MUE patients.

Conclusion

MUE patients had higher physical impairments, fatigue severity and more number of tender points than ORG patients, but had no different clinical characteristics from PSY patients except for the number of tender points.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

The Effects of Forest Therapy on Coping with Chronic Widespread Pain: Physiological and Psychological Differences between Participants in a Forest Therapy Program and a Control Group
Jin-Woo Han, Han Choi, Yo-Han Jeon, Chong-Hyeon Yoon, Jong-Min Woo, Won Kim
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2016; 13(3): 255. CrossRef
Frequency of Counterstrain Tender Points in Osteopathic Medical Students
Karen T. Snider, John C. Glover, Paul R. Rennie, Heather P. Ferrill, William F. Morris, Jane C. Johnson
Journal of Osteopathic Medicine.2013; 113(9): 690. CrossRef
Neural and muscular dysfunction in fibromyalgia
Naglaa A. Gadallah, Mohamed R. Awad, Klaus R. von Wild, Hanan E. El-Hefnawy, Nadia H. El-Arousy, Nadia G. El-Hefnawy, Tarek A. Abdou, Ehab A. El Shafie, Abeer K. El Zohiery
Japanese Journal of Comprehensive Rehabilitation Science.2013; 4: 30. CrossRef

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Fatigue Related Factors in Chronic Fatigue Patients with Chronic Widespread Pain after Treatment.: Cheol Hwan Kim, Ho Cheol Shin, Yong Woo Park, Eun Ju Sung; J Korean Acad Fam Med 2006;27(6):442-448. Published online June 10, 2006

Abstract
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Background
: The mechanism of fatigue in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and CFS (CFS) has not been clarified, but recently there are opinions that chronic pain is a major factor causing chronic fatigue. We performed this study to identify major factors related to chronic fatigue.

Methods : The subjects were 37 patients aged over 18 who visited the primary care institute of a university hospital, whose major symptoms were chronic widespread pain and chronic fatigue and who were given the diagnosis of FM or CFS. The research was carried out through four weeks of symptomatic treatment. The correlation of fatigue severity with the intensity of pain, depression level and anxiety level was analyzed, and regression analysis was conducted to examine the relation between improvement of fatigue after the four weeks' treatment and changes in the intensity of pain, depression level and anxiety level.

Results : After the four week treatment, only the intensity of pain was significantly correlated with fatigue severity. In addition, only change in the intensity of pain was statistically significantly correlated with the improvement of fatigue.

Conclusion : In patients who complained of chronic fatigue and chronic widespread pain, the improvement of fatigue after treatment was related to the reduction of pain but not emotional factors such as depression and anxiety.