A simple blood test could be a more accurate way of detecting fibromyalgia, a new study finds.
Researchers say that biomarkers in the blood can differentiate the musculoskeletal disorder - which affects millions including Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham - from other diseases.
Currently, doctors depend on patients reporting symptoms of their pain as well as a physical examination of tender points to diagnose fibromyalgia.
This often leads to people either going for years without a diagnosis or being misdiagnosed with other conditions.
The team, from Ohio State University, says the findings are evidence that there is a cheaper, simpler and faster way to diagnose fibromyalgia.
A new study from Ohio State University has found that a blood test could be a simpler and faster way of diagnosing fibromyalgia. About four million US adults, and twice as many women as men, suffer from the condition including Lady Gaga (pictured, February 2019)
Researchers found that biomarkers in the blood samples of patients with fibromyalgia distinguish the condition from the blood samples of those with other pain disorders (file image)
Fibromyalgia is one of the most common chronic pain conditions, affecting twice as many women as it does men.
Sufferers experience widespread pain throughout the body, fatigue, difficulty with focus and concentration and headaches.
Experts are unsure of what causes the disorder, but believe it may be triggered by several factors include genetics, infections and physical or emotional trauma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about four million US adults - or two percent of the population - has fibromyalgia.
A 2011 study from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine found that the average amount of time between symptom onset and diagnosis is five years.
In September 2017, Lady Gaga revealed on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
In an interview with Vogue one year later, she said she believes the condition was triggered by a sexual assault by a music producer at age 19 and breaking her hip while on tour in 2013.
'[Fibromyalgia is] really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result,' she said at the time.
'People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it's every day waking up not knowing how you're
