To quote the University of California San Diego psychiatrist Stephen Stahl, “fibromyalgia is emerging as a diagnosable and potentially treatable syndrome” (Stahl 2001). While acknowledging that psychological influences are powerful modulators of pain related suffering and dysfunction, there is now a growing understanding that fibromyalgia cannot be “written off” as a somatoform pain disorder. F...

INTRODUCTION Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic pain and tenderness throughout the body. Patients with fibromyalgia are treated with pharmacotherapy and many other therapies. However, because the cause of fibromyalgia is unclear, there is currently no clinically effective treatment method. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of a patient who developed fibromyalgia after left femoral ne...

BACKGROUND Patients with symptomatic Gaucher's disease sometimes have non-specific symptoms (such as general malaise with widespread musculoskeletal pains) that respond poorly to enzyme replacement treatment. These may indicate fibromyalgia syndrome; if so, other therapeutic options might be more appropriate. AIM To identify patients with Gaucher's disease for whom fibromyalgia-specific thera...

BACKGROUND The mechanism(s) of nociceptive dysfunction and potential roles of opioid neurotransmitters are unresolved in the chronic pain syndromes of fibromyalgia and chronic low back pain. METHODS History and physical examinations, tender point examinations, and questionnaires were used to identify 14 fibromyalgia, 10 chronic low back pain and 6 normal control subjects. Lumbar punctures wer...

OBJECTIVE To compare the cost of illness of three musculoskeletal conditions in relation to general wellbeing. METHODS Patients with fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain (CLBP), and ankylosing spondylitis who were referred to a specialist and participated in three randomised trials completed a cost diary for the duration of the study, comprising direct medical and non-medical resource utilisat...

Walking up and down stairs is a common and important activity of daily living. Women with fibromyalgia often show a reduced ability to perform this task.The objective of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of stair negotiation tasks and to assess the impact of fibromyalgia symptoms on the ability to negotiate stairs.Forty-two women with fibromyalgia participated in this descr...

UNLABELLED Fibromyalgia represents the tip of the iceberg of chronic pain in the general population. We have attempted to estimate the prevalence of fibromyalgia in the Israeli population, using the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiology Study Screening Questionnaire (LFESSQ), an instrument previously utilised in several European countries. METHODS The LFESSQ-4 screens for widespread pain, and the ...

OBJECTIVE Despite showing acceptable psychometric properties, the criterion validity of the original Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST) has been called into question for including insufficiently challenging comparison groups. Consequently our objective was to validate a Spanish version of the FiRST including pain disorders more analogous to fibromyalgia. METHODS The FiRST was translate...

Primary fibromyalgia is a common yet poorly understood syndrome characterized by diffuse chronic pain accompanied by other somatic symptoms, including poor sleep, fatigue, and stiffness, in the absence of disease. Fibromyalgia does not have a distinct cause or pathology. Nevertheless, in the past decade, the study of chronic pain has yielded new insights into the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia...

BACKGROUND Fibromyalgia is a painful, debilitating illness with a prevalence of 0.5-5.0% that affects women more than men. It has been shown that the diagnosis of fibromyalgia is associated with improved patient satisfaction and reduced healthcare utilization. This survey examined the patient journey to having their condition diagnosed and studied the impact of the condition on their life. ME...