Difference between fibromyalgia and PN
 

I first of all went to my GP and she referred me to pain clinic. They diagnosed me with PN and gave me RX for gabapentin.

Later, I complained of sore spots on my body to my GP and she thought fibromyalgia might be possibility. I got referral to rheumy MD and she said it was not fibromyalgia.

What is difference between the two? Gabapentin is used to treat both. Allodynia is prominent for me.

A lot of my pain is in tummy and waist. It hurts to wear pants. Pain is better in morning after sleeping overnight. Sitting hurts worse. I get more relief from standing and laying down.

I am not an expert so I may be wrong but PN is damage to the nerves and is usally from a condition,injury,illness etc. Sometimes like for myself the why is unknown. You can have numbness,pain,burning,tingles etc. For fibromyalgia it is wide spread joint and muscle pain. I think the cause can be unknown.Now for me though I don't have fibro I do have a lot of joint and muscle pain and no one can touch me but I think that is from my PN and RSD.
Have you seen a neurologist? How did they dx you with PN? Do they know why you have PN? Have you had bloodwork

I have not seen neurologist.

I think the widespread pain criteria is why rheumy MD said no to fibromyalgia. I do have pain in various locations of body, but not all at one time.

I don't know why I have nerve pain. I think the diagnosis was based on tingling, numbness, and electric shock type of pain.

With fibro you must react to 11 of 18 specfic pressure points in your body. I had 16. Usually you feel worse in the morning. I feel like I've been run over by a truck. A good rhumy should be able to do this. There isn't, as yet, a blood test or x-Ray to determine fibro. There is some info coming out with MRIs. There are over 100 symptoms for fibro, sometimes it has no known cause. I do have PN in addition, it was confirmed by EMG. So you could have both. I also have OA

I have both also. I often wonder if fibro isn't related to neuropathy also. Sometimes it is difficult to know which you are suffering from, or maybe they feed off of each other. Fibro involves nerves also, I believe. The nerves, which are located throughout your body, are the sites where you first receive impulses and also the site where you start to process and transmit them. In fact, nerves are the starting point of your pain. So how can we tell the difference. I was diagnosed with my neuropathy first about 6 yrs ago, my fibro this last April.

My understanding of this from the recent medical seminars I attended is that Fibro is a central pain disorder.

It can be triggered by anything that sets up a pain sequence.
Listed were
Trauma --like a car accident.
Arthritis
PN
Infections
Vaccines

We were told that trigger point diagnosis is no longer valid. And that Fibro was basically like having a radio on full blast with no volume control. Eventually small signals from the periphery get magnified in the brain and read as a higher pain level than really exists.

Also that it runs in families, and that an 8 fold occurance is possible if family members have it.

So yes, PN and Fibro can exist together. The PN would be the trigger for the Fibro.

Research is still ongoing about it.

I don't know much about PN, but lots about fibro.

As it is I am not positive if I have Neuropathy, but its been discussed by
more than one of my doctors. But I'm treated for fibro.

Donna:grouphug:

Makes perfect sense to me. When I read you must have 11 of the 18 points, I know I didn't, at least I didn't think so.

My mom has fibro as does both of her sisters. So, I guess I come by it naturally!:eek:Also makes sense that the neuropathy may have triggered it, who knows!

A pain doctor I saw also stated that the trigger points for dx is not accurate. To the OP how is your D levels? I thought I was told that low D can also be a sign of fibromyalgia. Though my mom has low D and does not have fibromyalgia but does have osteoporsis. So even if you have low D does not mean you have fibro. Just a thought.
I often wonder since I developed other conditions too if one causes another or a person becomes more sensitive to conditions/problems. Who knows. When I have asked doctors some times they say it is a fluke.