[troutman]

Fibromyalgia – Is It Real?

By Dr. Steven Novella

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/...s-it-real.html

So – is fibromyalgia “real?” So far no one has established a specific discrete pathophysiological etiology that is fibromyalgia. Further, many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia are nonspecific and are highly co-morbid with other disorders that might be causative. From that point of view fibromyalgia does not exist as a specific disease or etiology.

However, fibromyalgia can be a useful term to describe the complex web of comorbid symptoms described above – chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance and cognitive symptoms. It needs to be recognized, however, that this is a very heterogeneous group and different patients may arrive at this symptom complex in different ways.