Fibromyalgia eMedicine Rheumatology

Description: Fibromyalgia (FM) typically presents in young or middle-aged females as persistent widespread pain, stiffness, fatigue, disrupted unrefreshing sleep, and cognitive difficulties, often accompanied by multiple other unexplained symptoms, anxiety and/or depression, and functional impairment of daily living activities.
Fibromyalgia was once often dismissed by physicians and the public as a psychological disorder or "waste basket" diagnosis because of an absence of objective findings on physical examination and usual laboratory and imaging evaluations. Many physicians still do not accept fibromyalgia as a discrete illness. However, recent basic and clinical investigation has rapidly clarified the neurophysiologic bases for fibromyalgia and has led to its new classification as a central sensitivity syndrome (CSS). Indeed, fibromyalgia can now be considered a neurosensory disorder characterized, in part, by abnormalities in CNS pain processing. Increased understanding of the biological bases underlying fibromyalgia is rapidly leading to a new era of specific pharmacologic therapy for the condition.
John Buckner Winfield, MD Updated: Jul 14, 2009