Fibromyalgia, CReI: “Include this disabling syndrome among the LEAs”

On May 12, Fibromyalgia Day has been "celebrated" (since 1993) all over the world, a pathology that affects around two million people in our country.

ROME – Fibromyalgia is a complex chronic multifactorial syndrome with an unidentified etiopathogenesis characterized by the extreme variety and differentiation of symptoms that express it. Precisely today, May 12, Fibromyalgia Day is being “celebrated” (since 1993) throughout the world, a pathology that affects around two million people in our country, in large majority of females. The complexity of the clinical picture and the lack of biomarkers mean that on the one hand its existence is still questioned and on the other that over the years clinicians have had the need to draw up various classification/diagnostic criteria (the latest being those of ACR 2016) that would help them make a correct diagnosis and thus reduce the diagnostic delay which is still very high (on average 3/5 years). Italians who live with its essential symptoms experience: chronic pain spread throughout the body, stiffness, easy physical and mental fatigue; pervasive state of lack of energy and tiredness; sleep disorders; problems with thinking, memory and concentration; mood changes such as anxiety, depression, easy irritability; headaches, including migraines.

Who is the clinician who can be alongside the citizen-patient in his “battle against fibromyalgia”? He is the rheumatologist. On the occasion of the world day, Daniela Marotto, CReI president, intervenes by pointing out that “for a correct diagnosis of fibromyalgia, a correct and careful clinical evaluation is needed which considers many aspects in addition to generalized and chronic pain, such as the alterations in sleep in its many aspects (insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings), tiredness and neurocognitive deficits (the so-called fibromyalgia fog), and make a correct differential diagnosis. It is precisely the complexity of the highly disabling symptoms that pushes the patient to wander for years between various specialists who often do not look at the complexity of the picture, but only at the single symptom, thus delaying the diagnosis and consequently worsening the prognosis”. a multimodal therapeutic approach which is – continues Marotto, “only of a pharmacological type but which includes regular physical activity, precise dietary indications and in some cases psychological support therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapies”.< /p>

The pathology is recognized as such in many countries, but unfortunately Italy is not yet among these. On this day, therefore, CreI launches a “system” message through the mouth of its president: “it is necessary to create awareness on the part of citizens towards their state of illness, accompanied by the creation of a therapeutic alliance with clinicians, and followed from the commitment of the institutional, political, parliamentary and regional environment to give legislative and regulatory form to the care of patients with fibromyalgia, starting from their inclusion in the Essential Levels of Assistance”.
In Italy it is going the battle for the recognition of this pathology is moving forward as underlined by the CReI president – also thanks to the work of patient associations and the attention of the institutions. “The non-recognition as a disabling disease – continues Marotto – is a substantial deficiency for our country which fortunately some regions are trying to remedy, but on this very day we need to send out the message strongly: patients can no longer wait”.
Fortunately, the clinical world is not unprepared for a pathology that presents decidedly worrying indicative numbers. “Specialists in rheumatology, in close collaboration with general practitioners, are the clinicians who can directly intercept, diagnose and respond to the health needs of the patient with fibromyalgia”, concludes President Marotto, “We usually meet in our clinics, from Sardinia to Friuli, from Piedmont to Campania, patients who present with the typical range of worrying symptoms that can be traced back to fibromyalgia syndrome. The message we would like to send on this day is, as always, only one: do not underestimate your symptoms, do not keep your discomfort in silence, do not silence your pain. It is necessary to create conscious attention among all citizens towards their state of health and that this attention translates into a visit to their general practitioner, who will be able to indicate the best way to access the specialist rheumatologist who will make possible a timely, precise and satisfactory treatment of a syndrome that we can no longer consider invisible”