Acupuncture and Trigger Point Injections for Fibromyalgia: East-West Medicine Case Report.

Fibromyalgia is a clinical syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain that is often accompanied by ≥1 concomitant symptoms (eg, fatigue, poor sleep, cognitive alterations, and mood disturbances). In 2005, an estimated 5 million people in the United States suffered from fibromyalgia, and its growing effect on health-related quality of life is substantial. An increasingly popular hypothesis proposes that noxious, peripheral sensory input might contribute to the initiation and perpetuation of the diffuse pain seen in patients with fibromyalgia. That theory has led to the evaluation of multiple interventions to stimulate distal areas as a means to modulate the peripheral and central nervous systems. It has been the authors' experiences that the combination of trigger point injections and acupuncture provides improved clinical outcomes. In the current article, the authors present a case report of a patient with fibromyalgia who was successfully treated with an integrative approach that combined acupuncture with trigger point injections.