Should Rheumatologists be Managing Fibromyalgia?

Abstract

Fibromyalgia has always struggled to be taken seriously. The vague mixture of aches, pains, stiffness and fatigue with no clear clinical or investigational findings has led many to doubt its very existence. Evidence is accumulating, however, of demonstrable abnormalities of pain processing and psychosocial factors in fibromyalgia subjects. These may ‘prove’ its existence, but do they suggest it is rheumatological?