The symptoms of chronic pain and fatigue are both present in the two diseases, but in fibromyalgia it is pain that is the main symptom usually also accompanied by severe fatigue, which alternates with a type of muscle pain that can debilitate the patient.
In chronic fatigue syndrome , patients complain of a type of extreme exhaustion, while energy is totally absent, but the symptom of muscle or joint pain may occur instead.
How are the two diseases similar or different?
- Both may have had physical or psychic trauma as their origin.
- A clinical cause such as a viral infection from mononucleosis or influenza for CFS.
- The pain from different body postures for fibromyalgia.
Patients with fibromyalgia complain of pain as their first symptom, those with CFS complain of fatigue as their first symptom.
Symptoms due to inflammation such as glandular swelling, fever seem to be recurrent in CFS, but do not seem to be found in fibromyalgia.
In sleep disorders, although the two disorders have the same correlation with sleep, they then seem to differ in the effects of sleep on the symptoms of pain and fatigue
Among the similarities seem to be factors such as, the age of the patients (middle age) and gender (more so the female).
Treatment is also affected by the similarities between the two diseases, so on many aspects they are similar. For both diseases are prescribed:
- Regular sleep, adjusted to the patient’s needs.
- Do not consume caffeine, alcohol and tobacco.
- Practice cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions, to learn preventive symptom strategies, pain management skills, and autonomy in relaxation techniques.
- Only moderate and maintenance exercise for CFS patients.
- More intense and aerobic exercises for fibromyalgia patients.
- Anti-inflammatory drugs for CFS patients.
- Antidepressant drugs for fibromyalgia patients.
For both diseases, it is established that early and assiduous treatment, together with a cooperative attitude of patients, are able to achieve significant results in both treating symptoms and improving patients’ quality of life.
