Myalgia
Painful sensations in muscle tissue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Myalgia or muscle pain is a painful sensation evolving from muscle tissue. It is a symptom of many diseases. The most common cause of acute myalgia is the overuse of a muscle or group of muscles; another likely cause is viral infection, especially when there has been no injury.
| Myalgia | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Muscle pain, muscle ache |
 | |
| One of the myalgic symptoms | |
| Specialty | Rheumatology |
Long-lasting myalgia can be caused by metabolic myopathy, some nutritional deficiencies, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and amplified musculoskeletal pain syndrome.
Causes
The most common causes of myalgia are overuse, injury, and strain. Myalgia might also be caused by allergies, diseases, medications, or as a response to a vaccination. Dehydration at times results in muscle pain as well, especially for people involved in extensive physical activities.
Muscle pain is also a common symptom in a variety of diseases, including infectious diseases, such as influenza, muscle abscesses, Lyme disease, malaria, trichinosis or poliomyelitis;[1] autoimmune diseases, such as celiac disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome or polymyositis;[1][2] and gastrointestinal diseases, such as non-celiac gluten sensitivity (which can also occur without digestive symptoms) and inflammatory bowel disease (including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis).[3]
The most common causes are:[citation needed][4][5][6]
- Injury or trauma, including sprains, hematoma
- Overuse: using a muscle too much, too often, including protecting a separate injury
- Chronic tension
Muscle pain occurs with:
- Rhabdomyolysis, associated with:
- Viral infections
- Compression injury leading to crush syndrome
- Drug-related
- Commonly fibrates and statins
- Occasionally ACE inhibitors, cocaine, and some retroviral drugs
- Severe potassium deficiency
- Fibromyalgia
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Auto-immune disorders, including:
- Mixed connective tissue disease
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Polymyalgia rheumatica
- Polymyositis
- Dermatomyositis
- Multiple sclerosis (neurologic pain localised to myotome)
- Infections, including:
- Other
Overuse
Overuse of a muscle is using it too much, too soon or too often.[10] One example is repetitive strain injury.
Injury
The most common causes of myalgia by injury are sprains and strains.[10]
Autoimmune
- Multiple sclerosis (neurologic pain interpreted as muscular)
- Myositis
- Mixed connective tissue disease
- Lupus erythematosus
- Fibromyalgia syndrome
- Familial Mediterranean fever
- Polyarteritis nodosa
- Devic's disease
- Morphea
- Sarcoidosis
Metabolic defect
Other
- Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
- Channelopathy
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Stickler syndrome
- Hypokalemia
- Hypotonia
- Exercise intolerance
- Mastocytosis
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Eosinophilia myalgia syndrome
- Barcoo fever
- Herpes
- Hemochromatosis
- Delayed onset muscle soreness
- HIV/AIDS
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Tumor-induced osteomalacia
- Hypovitaminosis D
- Infarction[11]
Withdrawal syndrome from certain drugs
Sudden cessation of high-dose corticosteroids, opioids, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, caffeine, or alcohol can induce myalgia.[citation needed]
Treatment
When the cause of myalgia is unknown, it should be treated symptomatically. Common treatments include heat, rest, paracetamol, NSAIDs, massage, cryotherapy and muscle relaxants.[12]