Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 6, 2025; 13(31): 109020
Published online Nov 6, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i31.109020
Published online Nov 6, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i31.109020
When the diagnosis misses the mark: The psychiatric cost of misdiagnosing hypophosphatasia as fibromyalgia
Ethan M Jetter, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601, United States
Brandon P Lucke-Wold, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Author contributions: Jetter EM conceptualized the editorial topic, conducted the literature review, and contributed to drafting the manuscript; Lucke-Wold BP contributed to drafting, critically revising, and refining the manuscript for important intellectual content; and all authors reviewed and approved the final version and take responsibility for the content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ethan M Jetter, Doctorate Student, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1600 SW Archer Rd, Gainesville, FL 32601, United States. ejetter@ufl.edu
Received: April 28, 2025
Revised: June 27, 2025
Accepted: September 1, 2025
Published online: November 6, 2025
Processing time: 185 Days and 15.7 Hours
Revised: June 27, 2025
Accepted: September 1, 2025
Published online: November 6, 2025
Processing time: 185 Days and 15.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Hypophosphatasia is a rare metabolic bone disease that is susceptible to misdiagnosis as fibromyalgia due to overlapping symptoms such as chronic pain, fatigue, and weakness. This editorial highlights how overlooked low alkaline phosphatase levels and gender bias in pain assessment contribute to diagnostic delays. Greater recognition of hypophosphatasia may help reduce psychiatric harm associated with misdiagnosis.