Symptoms of Myositis | Muscle Pain, Rash, and Infection

Inflammatory Myositis - Symptoms

The major symptoms common to all forms of inflammatory myositis are muscle weakness and muscle pain. Other symptoms vary, depending on the specific cause of the disease.

In dermatomyositis and polymyositis, weakness usually affects muscles near the centre of the body like the neck, shoulders and hips. Patients can experience difficulty with simple tasks like combing their hair, dressing, getting into a car, and standing up from a sitting position or climbing stairs. About one third or half of such patients also have problems swallowing and often choke when drinking fluids. Some patients with dermatomyositis and polymyositis also have lung involvement which results in cough and breathlessness.

General symptoms like lethargy, fatigue, weight loss and poor appetite are also very common.

When to seek help

If any of the following persists, please get in touch with our team as soon as possible:

Muscle pain and weakness that is progressive and does not go away with rest
A red or purplish rash on your face or around your eyes
Muscle pain and weakness that begins after you start taking a new medication like a cholesterol-lowering drug
If you have been diagnosed with myositis and develop a fever, cough or other forms of infection like skin infection, abscess or pain on passing urine

All infections in patients with myositis need to be treated urgently and aggressively with antibiotics and often in hospitals.