Skip to main content

Good news: ‘fibrofog’ doesn’t portend Alzheimer’s

By: BRUCE JANCIN,
Family Practice News Digital Network 11/22/13

 SAN DIEGO – ‘Fibrofog’ – the cognitive dysfunction experienced by up to 80% of fibromyalgia patients – is not an early harbinger of Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Robert S. Katz asserted at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

 The problems with memory, concentration, language, and thinking, collectively known as fibrofog, affect fibromyalgia patients in their 20s-50s. The onset is typically more sudden and dramatic than with classic forms of dementia. As fibrofog becomes chronic, many affected fibromyalgia patients – fearing the worst – worry they are on a road to Alzheimer’s disease in middle age.

Not so, according to Dr. Katz, professor of medicine at Rush Medical College, Chicago.

 He presented a cross-sectional study involving two cohorts. One comprised 69 fibromyalgia patients with symptoms of cognitive dysfunction of 12 months duration or less. The other consisted of 39 fibromyalgia patients with fibrofog symptoms of 7-26 years duration. The long-duration group averaged 52.3 years of age, nearly 7 years older than the group with more recent onset of fibrofog. But the two groups were closely similar in terms of educational level, depression scores, and vocabulary scale scores.

 The key study finding: No significant differences existed between the two groups on 13 of the 14 measures of neurocognitive function assessed in the study, including logical memory, paired associate, digit symbol, letter fluency, processing speed, and the Stroop word speed and color speed tests.

 Indeed, the sole metric where the long-duration fibrofog patients fared significantly worse was the Trails A test, a measure of spatial scanning and cognitive sequencing. However, the two groups had closely similar scores on the Trails B.

 Compared with standardized normative means that have been established for each of the 14 neurocognitive tests, the level of cognitive impairment in the fibromyalgia patients was markedly less than that seen in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. More specifically, measures of processing speed and episodic memory, which are significantly diminished in individuals with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, were within normal range in both study groups. That’s reassuring. So is the fact that the cognitive deficits present in the shorter-duration group weren’t markedly more pronounced in the group troubled by cognitive problems for an additional 6-25 years. Thus, fibrofog does not appear to be a condition characterized by progressive cognitive decline, the rheumatologist observed.

 Dr. Katz reported having no financial conflicts of interest with regard to this study.


 bjancin@frontlinemedcom.com
 Copyright © 2013 International Medical News Group, LLC. All rights reserved. This page was copied from www.familypracticenews.com .

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living with Chronic pain hits the big screen!

Been to the movies lately?  Jennifer Aniston is on the big screen in a recent release titled "Cake." Her character, Claire is a victim of chronic pain...she belongs to a support group, where all of the members are coming to terms with the suicide of one of their members.  Of course, she also takes pain medication and addiction is another of her problems...and of course there's more! I guess I am writing this post just to bring readers' attention to the fact that Hollywood has become aware of the crisis that is chronic pain.  This movie is a testament to that. People that don't have to live with this kind of pain don't fully understand the whole story.  Maybe this movie will shed some light on the issues. Here is the official trailer for the movie: Sources: prweb;NorthJersey.com;YouTube
Post a Comment
Read more

Effectiveness Of Ozone Injections Is No Longer Up In The Air

Most of us know someone who has osteoarthritis, if we don't have it ourselves.  Joint replacement surgery is a pretty common remedy when the joint becomes severely damaged and the patient is in a lot of pain.  With risk of complications from such a surgery, perhaps an alternative treatment should be tried first. One such remedy is the injection of a synthetic version of collagen(e.g. Synvisc®) into the affected joint.  This procedure restores the cushioning to a joint that has degenerated over the years. It can diminish the pain substantially and help put off joint replacement surgery for months to years.  The biggest drawback is that these products are expensive.   GoodRX , a web site that can be used to estimate the cost of medications, estimates the cost of these products to be over $1,000 each. Here's another example--and I am not sure how widely accepted this protocol has become since study authors introduced it in November 2015.  Are you ready for this? Inject
Post a Comment
Read more

Beware Of The Tick!

It's tick season, everyone! And while we all know about Lyme Disease and its lingering effects, a new problem has entered the scene. According to the CDC, the Powassan virus is another tick-borne disease that has recently been recognized. The CDC says symptoms become apparent anywhere from one week to one month after infection. Symptoms include vomiting, weakness, confusion, loss of coordination, problems with speech and seizures. Approximately half of those infected by this virus have permanent neurological symptoms, which can include muscle wasting, problems with memory, and recurrent headaches. Many people who have been infected with Powassan virus required hospitalization and sometimes even respiratory support (i.e., a respirator). Treatment is focused on supportive measures. In the meantime, preventive measures are the best way to avoid Lyme disease, Powassan virus , or any other tick-borne virus.  You can read more about preventive measures by clicking here . Sour
Post a Comment
Read more