Fibro and kids

[Libragirl67]

I just recently found out some statistics that took me by surprise. When I think of fibromyalgia I think of adults having it. But did you know that for every six cases of fibromyalgia one of them is a child? It usually affects the females between the ages of 13and 15. And in alot of cases the fibromyalgia in adolesents is mistaken for severe depression. This just suprised me that the stats were 1 in 6. :sad:

 

[Dooi]

Hi Libraygirl67, I'm curious, where did you read those statistics?

 

[twiztc]

It does not surprise me. I swear I've had it from a very early age even though I was only diagnosed in my thirties.

 

[mariposa]

I know that it's very difficult to diagnose in children under 18.... and I know that most sufferers are female.. but I've never heard a number like this 1 in 6, no. That seems like an extreme percentage... what I've read is that 80 to 90% of people who have Fibro are female, so... not seeing how 1 in 6 could be kids. 1 in 6 would be a little over 16% (I'm taxing my brain with all this math here!) so that would leave at most 3% or 4% for men. Could it be that low?

 

[Libragirl67]

I saw it when I was on the "webMD" site. Yes they did say that it can often be mistaken for depression. And that it accounts for alot of the fatigue in some kids.

 

[Melissast]

I was diagnosed when I was 16. I knew that teenagers could have it. I guess that children even younger then teens could have it to. It would be hard to diagnose them. Its hard to diagnose anything, so many symptoms are alike in many different illnesses. Then the added trouble of some doctors not even believing that fibro is real. I just wish there was a real to help all those poor kids that are getting miss diagnosed with depression.