Musculoskeletal conditions
Framing
- This cluster covers common regional musculoskeletal presentations outside the inflammatory/crystal arthropathies - soft tissue (rotator cuff, tendinopathy), mechanical spinal (acute lower back pain), and centrally-mediated chronic pain (fibromyalgia) - unified by their high prevalence in general practice and rheumatology referral, and by the importance of excluding red-flag pathology before defaulting to a benign mechanical diagnosis
- Fibromyalgia in particular requires active positive diagnosis (characteristic widespread pain pattern, fatigue, sleep disturbance) rather than being a diagnosis of exclusion reached only after negative investigations
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