What is the lowest score in the test for fibromyalgia
- Thread starter Philippa
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Hi Philippa, and welcome to our community!
There are actually definitely no tests for fibromyalgia!
Two exams have been claimed to be tests.
The old and completely out of date one is the tender point "test", altho still sometimes used:
18 certain points on your body are pressed, and if you react to at least 11 of them, that was used as a sign, sometimes proof.
However this is totally unreliable, so has long been taken out of the diagnostic criteria.
The FM/a test measures a set of antibodies - cytokines and chemokines - and is a one man show by an entrepreneur called Bruce Gillis, claiming that you "need" at least about 70%, which is not proven, see this thread.
The 2016 diagnostic criteria of the American College of Rheumatology are:
So it's not easy. One part may be asking several docs if you think one isn't sure enough. But another part of it is believing it yourself, by informing yourself and trying to get a hang of your body, your symptoms and what others say about these. A third part is waiting for the pain to get worse.... Many of us start with one doc saying: Maybe, you ask a GP, then a rheum or two, get all or most of your symptoms checked by all kinds of docs, e.g. neurologists, endocrinologists, orthopedists, and if all these don't explain it satisfactorily, then it'd seem to be fibro. Which helps better to decide on what to do about the symptoms. But until you are sure, and beyond that, it will always pay to stick around here and read the Big Advice Post at the top of the forum, cos it's a brilliant start to improve all our symptoms.
My GPs agreed with me that it might be fibro, my first rheum. said no, then neurologists, endocrinologist, orthopedists all said we don't know what it is, some said maybe it's fibro, some had no idea, the 2nd rheum. said it is, and from then on I declared it is. I could have gone back to the 1st rheum. and if he'd again said no, I could have declared it's not. Instead I believed it is, but got all my symptoms sorted and a lot of them down, and now finally have self-diagnosed doc-confirmed a 2nd condition which explains the rest better than all docs could before. (BTW: There was a competent article a few months ago which said docs should listen to us (our hunches, our self-diagnoses) more, since they are so often wrong in their diagnoses.)
There are actually definitely no tests for fibromyalgia!
Two exams have been claimed to be tests.
The old and completely out of date one is the tender point "test", altho still sometimes used:18 certain points on your body are pressed, and if you react to at least 11 of them, that was used as a sign, sometimes proof.
However this is totally unreliable, so has long been taken out of the diagnostic criteria.
The FM/a test measures a set of antibodies - cytokines and chemokines - and is a one man show by an entrepreneur called Bruce Gillis, claiming that you "need" at least about 70%, which is not proven, see this thread.The 2016 diagnostic criteria of the American College of Rheumatology are:
- "Generalized pain, defined as pain in at least 4 of 5 regions, is present."
- "Symptoms have been present at a similar level for at least 3 months."
- "Widespread pain index (WPI) ≥ 7 and symptom severity scale (SSS) score ≥ 5 OR WPI of 4–6 and SSS score ≥ 9."
- "A diagnosis of fibromyalgia is valid irrespective of other diagnoses. A diagnosis of fibromyalgia does not exclude the presence of other clinically important illnesses."
So it's not easy. One part may be asking several docs if you think one isn't sure enough. But another part of it is believing it yourself, by informing yourself and trying to get a hang of your body, your symptoms and what others say about these. A third part is waiting for the pain to get worse.... Many of us start with one doc saying: Maybe, you ask a GP, then a rheum or two, get all or most of your symptoms checked by all kinds of docs, e.g. neurologists, endocrinologists, orthopedists, and if all these don't explain it satisfactorily, then it'd seem to be fibro. Which helps better to decide on what to do about the symptoms. But until you are sure, and beyond that, it will always pay to stick around here and read the Big Advice Post at the top of the forum, cos it's a brilliant start to improve all our symptoms.
My GPs agreed with me that it might be fibro, my first rheum. said no, then neurologists, endocrinologist, orthopedists all said we don't know what it is, some said maybe it's fibro, some had no idea, the 2nd rheum. said it is, and from then on I declared it is. I could have gone back to the 1st rheum. and if he'd again said no, I could have declared it's not. Instead I believed it is, but got all my symptoms sorted and a lot of them down, and now finally have self-diagnosed doc-confirmed a 2nd condition which explains the rest better than all docs could before. (BTW: There was a competent article a few months ago which said docs should listen to us (our hunches, our self-diagnoses) more, since they are so often wrong in their diagnoses.)
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Hi Philippa,
What kind of test did they do?
Unfortunately, as JayCS said above, there is no widely accepted test for fibromyalgia - rather its diagnosis is based on the cumulative presentation of a number of symptoms that can vary from person to person, and the elimination of any other possible cause. Some doctors may turn to diagnostic questionnaires for fibromyalgia, but they aren't very reliable.
If your doctor suspects fibro but isn't being very helpful, the good news is that there's plenty you can do to help yourself. In fact, many of us figure out how to manage our symptoms pretty effectively through lifestyle - it's really worth committing to.
The guide to managing fibro that JayCS mentioned above is here:
www.fibromyalgiaforums.org
Welcome here, and best of luck to you
What kind of test did they do?
Unfortunately, as JayCS said above, there is no widely accepted test for fibromyalgia - rather its diagnosis is based on the cumulative presentation of a number of symptoms that can vary from person to person, and the elimination of any other possible cause. Some doctors may turn to diagnostic questionnaires for fibromyalgia, but they aren't very reliable.
If your doctor suspects fibro but isn't being very helpful, the good news is that there's plenty you can do to help yourself. In fact, many of us figure out how to manage our symptoms pretty effectively through lifestyle - it's really worth committing to.
The guide to managing fibro that JayCS mentioned above is here:
My advice for managing fibromyalgia (especially for newcomers)
I am not a doctor or anything, just a person who has lived with fibromyalgia for several years now and has done a lot of research and trial and error experimentation. What follows is just basics. There are a lot of variations. You will find your own versions of everything I say, as this is not a...
www.fibromyalgiaforums.org
Welcome here, and best of luck to you
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Ah, this was the thread I meant here, where someone else talked about "the test", so perhaps Philippa also meant our site test.
However if it really was this test, it would have had two numbers, one for WPI (widespread pain index), one for SS (symptom severity), and the answer is at the bottom of the test result, two scenarios. Either A: 7 or more for WPI and 5 or more for SS, or B: 3-6 for WPI and 9 or more for SS. 15 on WPI would be "widespread" indeed, so justifies scenario A, and usually the SS will then also be 5 or more.
The problem with this test is that first other conditions need to be excluded and if they have and you have a lot of pain all over, we call it fibro, for want of a better name and lacking much idea about causes and treatments....
However if it really was this test, it would have had two numbers, one for WPI (widespread pain index), one for SS (symptom severity), and the answer is at the bottom of the test result, two scenarios. Either A: 7 or more for WPI and 5 or more for SS, or B: 3-6 for WPI and 9 or more for SS. 15 on WPI would be "widespread" indeed, so justifies scenario A, and usually the SS will then also be 5 or more.
The problem with this test is that first other conditions need to be excluded and if they have and you have a lot of pain all over, we call it fibro, for want of a better name and lacking much idea about causes and treatments....
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The only way to test conclusively for fibromyalgia is to have all of the tests required to rule out all of the other things that could be causing the symptoms of the patient. And of course, since fibromyalgia is an umbrella term, "conclusively" as an absolute is not really possible, but that is what will get you a reasonably accurate diagnosis of fibro.
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