All About Fibromyalgia: A Guide for Patients and Their Families - Hardcover

Wallace, Daniel J.; Wallace, Janice Brock

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195147537 ISBN 13: 9780195147537

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This year, six million Americans--most of them women--will go to their doctors, complaining of an illness they have no name for. The majority will be turned away or treated for depression; the few who persist will go to an average of four doctors before they receive the correct diagnosis: fibromyalgia.
In their earlier Making Sense of Fibromyalgia, noted medical writer Janice Wallace and Dr. Daniel Wallace, a leading expert on this disorder, provided a comprehensive guide--for both patients and professionals--to this little known and poorly understood syndrome. Now, in All About Fibromyalgia, the Wallaces provide a thoroughly revised and updated version of that highly successful volume, incorporating a wealth of new information. This edition provides the current understanding of the disease as well as the latest drug treatments--all laid out in clear and accessible language.
As in the previous volume, the authors provide a detailed, yet clear explanation of the disease. Fibromyalgia, they explain, is a form of chronic neuromuscular pain, a pain-amplification syndrome brought on by abnormal interactions between hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, and the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes the syndrome occurs spontaneously; in most cases, the authors write, it is associated with trauma, stress, such conditions as lupus and hypothyroidism, and over forty microbes, from hepatitis to Epstein-Barr to Lyme disease.
Drawing on actual cases to illustrate their points, the authors help break through the isolation that patients often feel when doctors misdiagnose or simply ignore their symptoms. All About Fibromyalgia addresses a desperate need for information on this disease and offers reassurance to patients and their families.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Wallace, M.D., is an attending physician who has served as Clinical Chief of Rheumatology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and has treated hundreds of victims of fibromyalgia. He is the author of The Lupus Book and co-author of All About Osteoarthritis, both by Oxford. Janice Wallace is a freelance medical writer. They live in Los Angeles.

From Booklist

Fibromyalgia, a syndrome rather than a disease, is more widely accepted by the medical profession now than it was a decade ago. This informative, accessible manual begins with the syndrome's history and proceeds to who generally gets fibromyalgia (more women than men) and why. The Wallaces describe the often localized or regional pains and discomforts associated with the syndrome, show how they affect different parts and systems of the body, and explore the relationships between the syndrome and stress, sleep, hormones, and the immune system. Many conditions can be related to fibromyalgia, and a physician must consider such possibilities in making a differential diagnosis and in preparing a program of treatment. The Wallaces also discuss various therapies and methods for coping with the condition. They give both patients and health professionals a fuller understanding of fibromyalgia and suggestions for working together in successfully combating it. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0195147537
• ISBN 13: 9780195147537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 272