Summary of the Oregon Fibromyalgia Convention

Oct 9, 1998 - © Cynthia Webber (Jausten)

After attending the Oregon Fibromyalgia Convention, which took place in Portland, Oregon on September 19 - 20th, I came home to spend several days in and out of bed recovering. We arrived in Portland on Friday, and attended the dinner and reception that was organized by the Oregon Fibromyalgia Foundation. The driving from British Columbia to Oregon was shared by Michelle Struik, Suite 101's Disability Editor and myself.

I was looking forward to hearing the speakers and learning of new research into fibromyalgia, but I basically came away exhausted and confused. I learned nothing new about fibromyalgia and its treatment, and was confused by one doctor who suggested that CFIDS and FMS are the same, and another doctor who separated the two conditions. I was also confused about the terms trigger points and tender points as several of the speakers interchanged these terms during their talks.

There were two question and answer periods at the end of each day, and I had questioned the speakers about the terms trigger points vs tender points, but I was scheduled for a 10-minute massage during this time and missed their responses. Michelle did tell me that they didn't really answer the question, so I'm just going to continue to follow Dr. I. Jon Russell's explanation. In his book, The Fibromyalgia Help Book, he explains trigger points as tender areas of muscle which often can be felt as knots or nodules in the muscle that trigger pain to another area of the body. Tender points, which characterize fibromyalgia, hurt only when pressed and do not refer pain to another area of the body. Another important fact is that many FMS tender points are not located in muscle tissue, but are found to involve ligaments and bursae. Thus, trigger points and tender points are two clinically different disorders, and a person may have both.

The debate about whether CFIDS and FMS are different conditions or the same condition with different levels of symptoms still is unanswered. These two syndromes have some symptoms in common, but Dr. Karl Henriksson stated that there is no increase in Substance P in CFIDS, while there is an increase with FMS. To me, there is a significant difference between the two conditions based upon this fact. It was also reported that a single cause of CFIDS seems unlikely since many different triggering agents such as viruses, toxins, or stress could be involved in different people. The growth hormone studies with FMS patients did show that those people who were given growth hormones had fewer tender points than those who were given placebos. This research is helpful, but not practical at this point for treatment due to cost factors.

The copyright of the article Summary of the Oregon Fibromyalgia Convention in Fibromyalgia is owned by Cynthia Webber (Jausten). Permission to republish Summary of the Oregon Fibromyalgia Convention in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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