Fibromyalgia and Diffuse Myalgia

Chronic pain is one of the most common complaints encountered by primary care clinicians. Often, patients present not with well localized pain but with diffuse and nonspecific myalgias. Fibromyalgia is the most common etiology for this type of pain. In community-based studies, 2% [1] and 1.2% to 6.2% of school-age children screened positive for fibromyalgia [2–4]. Women and girls are at higher risk than males, and risk increases with age, peaking between 55 and 79 years [1,5]. Persons suffering from fibromyalgia most commonly complain of widespread pain. The pain is usually bilateral and is usually worse in the neck and trunk [6]. Additional symptoms include fatigue, waking unrefreshed, morning stiffness, paresthesias, and headaches [6–12]. Compared with patients with other rheumatologic conditions, persons with fibromyalgia more often suffer from comorbid conditions [13], including chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, irritable bladder symptoms, temporomandibular joint syndrome, myofascial pain syndrome, restless leg syndrome, and affective disorders [13–15]. Fibromyalgia can cause significant morbidity [1,16,17]. Patients with fibromyalgia require an average of 2.7 drugs at any time for fibromyalgiarelated symptoms and have an average of 10 outpatient visits per year, with one hospitalization every 3 years [13]. Fibromyalgia has been associated with higher rates of osteoporosis [18]. Patients with fibromyalgia have higher rates of surgery, including hysterectomies, appendectomies, back/ neck surgery, and carpal tunnel surgery, compared with patients with other