Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are two rare medical conditions that have a lot of similiraties when it comes to their symptoms. In fact, some doctors even consider them as a same thing and recommend a similar treatment. Both conditions are very difficult to diagnose. There have been a lack of consensus in the scientific community as to what causes them and some doctors do not even consider them as a disease due to lack of objective, replicable diagnostic tests that will indicate their instances. Therefore both diseases are only diagnosed when other possible conditions have been ruled out.

As mentioned earlier, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome share many parallel symptoms. Among these are chronic pain and fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, new type of headaches, association with Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ), cognitive impairment, dizziness, and impaired body coordination. Both of these conditions are also debilitating and impairing because the symptoms drastically reduces the person’s functioning. As such, both of them can also lead to the depression of those who have those conditions.

There are however some key differences on the symptoms of the two conditions. The patient is asked which symptom is worse, the pain or the fatigue. Pain is the key feature of fibromyalgia and people who have it have a heightened pain sensitivity and are easily hurt by pressure. People who have chronic fatigue syndrome does not feel increased pain from pressure. On the other hand, the key feature in chronic fatigue syndrome is fatigue, as people who have it feels tired all the time.

Another important difference between the two is that chronic fatigue syndrome onset usually after flulike symptoms, or after a viral infection, while fibromyalgia onsets after a physical or emotional trauma. Those who have chronic fatigue syndrome have an active immune system, as if combating an infection. This is not found in patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Also, the pain of fibromyalgia is lessened with heat while the pain of chronic fatigue syndrome is not.

At the end of the day, the distinction between the two hardly matters anymore as there have been no cure found for both conditions. However, their symptoms can be managed and those people who have chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia should focus on the approaches on how to treat them.