Pain is a common complaint in the primary care setting, and the standard of practice is to assess for the cause of the pain. Patients often present with painful symptoms of unknown etiology that cannot be defined by the degree of inflammation or damage to muscle tissue. Fibromyalgia affects an estimated 10 million people in the United States and is especially common in women. Many patients have additional symptoms including fatigue, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, cognitive problems/mem ...

Evolving research in the field of sleep-wake medicine has offered insights regarding the linkage between sleep disturbances and adverse consequences related to performance, mood, behavior, and medical illness. Unremitting symptoms of excessive sleepiness related to sleep disordered breathing or circadian misalignment can have a significant impact on overall health and quality of life. As developments in the science of sleep-wake medicine emerge, there is a need to understand the implications ...

Does having a seizure mean epilepsy, or is it an isolated neurological event? Failure to recognize diagnostic uncertainty between the epilepsies and non-epileptic events may be a factor in high rates of misdiagnosis. Many patients who have been misdiagnosed as having epilepsy have had previous EEGs interpreted as epileptiform that contributed to the misdiagnosis of epilepsy. Patients are often faced with the need to tolerate complex cocktails of medications over long periods of time causing ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects 400,000 Americans and is the leading nontraumatic cause of neurological disability in young adults. Although MS is progressive, it is not fatal, and patients generally have a normal lifespan. However, progressive disability imposes increasing limitations and reduced quality of life for these patients. Newly released consensus guidelines offer neurologists and primary care physicians direction to improve the differential diagnosis and develop strategies to faci ...