- Doctors Vicente Palop and Patricia Roth, from the Ribera IMSKE hospital, explain the symptoms and the disability that this illness can cause at the Health School of the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia, in which the Ribera Salud Foundation collaborates.
- Around 70 people meet to listen to the advice of specialists, after the launch of a Fibromyalgia Unit in Ribera IMSKE, which has physiotherapists, nutritionists, rheumatologists, specialists in color treatment and qualified nursing staff to care for these patients.
The School of Health of Mercantile Athenaeum of Valencia, with which the company collaborates Ribera Health Foundation, hosted yesterday an interesting conference by doctors Vicente Palop and Patricia Roth on fibromyalgia, its symptoms and the difficulties in diagnosis, which in many cases causes suffering to patients, mostly women. “There is no specific diagnostic test for fibromyalgia, but in the Fibromyalgia Unit of the hospital IMSKE River We classify the pain, fatigue, sleep problems and other symptoms of this syndrome, which affects patients so much, in order to provide them with a diagnosis and address their treatment," explained Dr. Palop.
Around 70 people met yesterday to hear the advice of two of the most experienced and recognised specialists in this field in Spain. Dr Palop alone has treated more than 12.000 affected women throughout Spain, and has participated in the monographic review of Fibromyalgia disease and the Fisterra Guide. Following the integration of the Ribera IMSKE hospital into the healthcare group Ribera, Dr Palop and Dr Roth started the Fibromyalgia Unit at the Ribera IMSKE hospital, which has physiotherapists, nutritionists, rheumatologists, colour treatment specialists and qualified nursing staff to care for these patients. For both, accurate diagnosis and “personalised attention to patients” is key to their treatment and recovery. “Listening and spending time with patients is very important,” they explained.
It is estimated that in Spain there are around 900.000 people with fibromyalgia, an ailment that especially affects women between 30 and 60 years old, but is also diagnosed in younger people and men. However, according to the National Institute of Statistics, there are only around 276.000 patients diagnosed.
Dr. Palop explains that patients “have symptoms in different organs, which affects their mood, generates anxiety and even causes cognitive impairment.” “They all have a common thread, which is pain, and sometimes this indefinite pain becomes chronic, causing insomnia, sometimes anxiety and depression, and the subsequent cognitive impairment that does not allow them to remember or maintain attention,” explain the fibromyalgia specialists at the Ribera IMSKE hospital. “It is mainly tendon and muscle pain,” they add.
Complete assessment of the patient in consultation
To arrive at an accurate diagnosis, as the specialists explained yesterday, the Fibromyalgia Unit of the Ribera IMSKE hospital carries out a complete assessment of the patients and a test to determine “the symptoms exactly”, they stressed. And then “a personalized and comprehensive approach to treatment is proposed, which can include different specialties, always under the supervision of this specialized unit and with constant and fluid communication between the professionals who treat the same patient”. Dr. Palop and Dr. Roth also highlighted yesterday the importance of the patient's clinical history and the importance of this complete initial assessment to avoid a misdiagnosis or lack of diagnosis. “We published two cases of misdiagnosis of patients who were attributed with fibromyalgia and who had actually consumed too much vitamin A due to acute pharyngitis problems. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that is deposited in fat, mainly in the liver, lungs and brain, and that produces generalized pain, fatigue and produces some alterations that can be confused with fibromyalgia. But when vitamin A was withdrawn, these patients improved completely," he said.
