I have always been an advocate of utilizing a team approach with all healthcare disciplines represented when helping my patients with any chronic pain condition.  Over the past ten years there has been a lot of debate about Fibromyalgia with some pain management professionals not even recognizing it as a diagnosis to others over-diagnosing people with this condition.  I do believe it is a credible diagnosis and that medication alone is not the answer.

Management of fibromyalgia requires a multidimensional approach including patient education, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, and other treatment, according to a review published in the July 15, 2007 issue of American Family Physician.  Below is information from a great website www.medscape.com that I believe important.  If you want to review the entire report authored by News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD and CME (Continuing Medical Education) Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd, please click here.

“Fibromyalgia is an idiopathic, chronic, nonarticular pain syndrome with generalized tender points,” write Sangita Chakrabarty, MD, MSPH, and Roger Zoorob, MD, MPH, from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. “It is a multisystem disease characterized by sleep disturbance, fatigue, headache, morning stiffness, paresthesias, and anxiety. Nearly 2 percent of the general population in the United States suffers from fibromyalgia, with females of middle age being at increased risk.”

Specific treatment recommendations are as follows:

1.   Suggested treatment modalities include patient education, cognitive behavior therapy, exercise, physical therapy, and pharmacotherapy (level of recommendation, A, based on 5 randomized controlled trials).
2. Antidepressant medications may alleviate pain and improve sleep quality and global well-being in patients with fibromyalgia (level of recommendation, B, based on few randomized controlled trials).
3. Cyclobenzaprine, 10 to 30 mg at bedtime, may decrease pain and improve sleep quality in patients with fibromyalgia (level of recommendation, A, based on systematic review of randomized controlled trials).
4. Aerobic exercise training may ameliorate fibromyalgia symptoms (level of recommendation, A, based on systematic review of randomized controlled trials).

To learn more about chronic pain management please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com and go to our Publications page and check out my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. If you want to learn more about multidisciplinary chronic pain management you can find my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Treatment that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

To check out our July Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please click here.