I have submitted a new petition to the 10 Downing Street website, saying:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that doctors are educated about Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain.
Fibromyalgia likely affects between 1.2 and 2.7 million people in the UK at least (based on internationally recognised prevalence statistics of 2-4.5% of the population) and myofascial pain likely affects even more people, but doctors receive little or no student training or later education in either condition. This leaves many people suffering unneccessarily, with diagnosis often taking years and little appropriate treatment given after diagnosis.
Every doctor is likely to see patients with Fibromyalgia and/or myofascial pain during their career and they need to be educated so that they can deal with these patients appropriately.”
To see the petition and sign it (if you are a UK citizen or ex-pat) please click here.
May 23, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Why? I’m a final year medical student and we are already taught some information concerning the “condition”. In fact I stumbled on this web site researching an essay I am writing concerning the role of exercise and anti depressants in fibromyalgia. There is little benefit in teaching any more because frankly not enough is known about the problem, currently the diagnostic criteria is so wide and unspecific it is highly likely that the condition known as fibromyalgia will be divided in to several conditions in coming decades. It’s my opinion and to a large extent that of those I study with that fibromyalgia will become as out dated a term and condition as the term “bad air” used during the plague… It’s utterly meaningless, if you want something done about the condition you suffer from making medical students sit through further irrelevant communication skills exercise is not how you should go about it. Push for research to differentiate this massive umbrella of a condition so it can be treated more directly. I appolgise if this seems insensitive but medical school has become so watered down over the past 5 years even with more importance placed on social skills etc… and we can only learn so much, so the core material the life saving items become side tracked and who suffers? the public…
May 23, 2008 at 3:06 pm
ps I see this is moderated, I will be very disappointed if this does not get posted, people need to hear the other side of the argument. I appreciate that people with fibromyalgia suffer a great deal but you must also appreciate that no one in history has died directly from fibromyalgia. Surely preservation of life must be the key issue in medical education, closely followed by the remaining facets.
May 23, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Hi Matthew
Thanks for commenting. I’m actually going to contact you personally to see if we can discuss this further. Lack of knowledge of Fibro amongst healthcare professionals and med students is actually a large part of “your side of the argument”.
Research has shown distinct changes in the structure and function of the brains of people with Fibro – yet most healthcare professionals do not realise this.
The diagnostic criteria, if properly applied, can be extremely useful – but it is rarely properly applied in clinical practice, and yes this leads to a unspecific diagnosis, but this is down to poor education of med students and lack of diligence on the part of many doctors when confronted with Fibro – not because of the condition itself.
And, of course, I totally agree that preservation of life is important in medical education (although the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath (the Lasagne Oath) goes beyond that). However, increasing numbers of people with Fibro are committing suicide because of the unbearable symptoms and the lack of medical care. People who are suicidal through clinical depression often get better care than Fibro patients who are near suicidal through agonising pain and no medical attention.
I think the state of med schools is shocking, but that is not a reason to abandon millions of patients.