# Joint clicking and Fibro???



## 21923 (Aug 20, 2006)

Hi everybody, I'm kinda new to the forum and was diagnosed with IBS-D and anxiety about 3-4 months ago. I started having other new symptoms about 1 month ago and was wondering if it could be FMS. I have most of the FMS symptoms including pain in my muscles and tendons but I started noticing that my joints are clicking when they are bent. it started just in my elbow but now it's pretty much every joints in my body. Could this be a symptoms of FMS or another related condition? I'm seeing my Rheumatologist in 2 weeks to have it checked. I took some blood test 2 weeks ago and it came back ok (no sign of rheum. arthritis).here are my symptoms:IBS symptoms, trouble staying asleep, joint/muscles and tendon pain(mild to moderate pain), some tingling and muscle spasm, anxiety, joints clicking.the joint/muscle pain and the insomnia started when I was on Lexapro (SSRI) for anxiety so sometime I wonder if the drug could be responsible for some of my problems.any comments or feedback would help.thanks a lot and have a nice day.JF


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## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

Hi JF, welcome to the forum!







You have kept very good track of your symptoms! I must congratulate you on that! Way to go! That is going to help your doctor so much. Surprisingly, when you start asking the average patient "when did this start", or "when did your meds change"...They never can remember! You have done great keeping track of what's going on in your body, when it started, and some of the (perhaps) precipitating factors.Joint pain is not normally associated with Fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia pain is normally pain in the fibrous tissues of the body - muscles, tendons, and ligaments. So joint pain or clicking is not normally a sign or symptom of Fibro, and can be a sign or symptom of something else going on. Disturbed sleep is definitely par for the course in Fibro patients. As is muscle pain.However, something you said caught my attention! It was this:


> quote: the joint/muscle pain and the insomnia started when I was on Lexapro (SSRI)


In their book "No More Sleepless Nights", doctors Peter Hauri and Shirley Linde reference lab studies in which patients were deprived of a sound sleep schedule for an extended period of time. At the end of the study, those patients had all the symptoms of Fibromyalgia - the painful, aching muscles, the cognitive dysfunction, the fatigue, etc. Once returned to a normal sleep schedule, however, all the patients recovered, and no longer had the "Fibromyalgia-like" symptoms.So, the fact that your insomnia and muscle pain started at about the same time, was a big sign to me. It is likely that your muscle pain could be linked to your insomnia. During sleep, our muscles are busy repairing themselves from the daily damage. When we can't (or don't) sleep, our muscles can't repair that damage. So we start feeling more pain and achiness.I don't know enough about SSRIs to know if they can cause insomnia, but it seems to me that they very likely could. I know some other forms of anti-depressants (like tricyclics) are used to induce sleep, so I'm sure there are other anti-d's or anti-anxiety drugs that could also disturb sleep.Anyway, it could be that addressing your sleep issues might have the side-effect of helping some of your pain issues.I'm no doctor though, so these are all just tidbits I've picked up over the years of researching and trying to treat my own illnesses.I'm so glad you have an appointment with a Rheumy soon! You'll have to let us know what happens. I sure hope that you and your doctor can find something that will help you feel better, whatever it is that's going on in your body.I hope this helps, at least a little!


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## 21923 (Aug 20, 2006)

Thank you so much for your reply. Actually my problem is mostly the soft tissues (muscles, tendons) and not really the joints itself. I think it's the soft tissue around the joints that are giving me a hard time.I know for sure that the SSRI I was taking gave me insomnia since I had no problem sleeping before that and it started on the first day I was on Lexapro. I stopped taking it a month ago but my sleep pattern has been really bad ever since I started taking the SSRI.I like your theory about having FMS symptoms because of the insomnia...I'll look more into it and ask my doctor and rheumatologist.I've been ready about Myofascial pain syndrome and it seems possible that this could be one of my problems...but I'm not convinced yet.thanks a lot again for answering my post.JF


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