A chronic, nonprogressing disease of widespread soft tissue pain, without inflammation, that can be associated with fatigue, cognitive disturbance, psychiatric symptoms, and multiple somatic symptoms. Fibromyalgia is reported to occur more frequently in women (young adult to middle aged) than in men, but can also occur in children. It may be triggered by infection, trauma, stress or surgery, or with gradual onset and no known precipitating event. Or there may be a familial connection. Of uncertain etiology, it may be related to pain dysregulation.

Common signs and symptoms can include chronic widespread pain, mood disorder, anxiety, nonrestorative or disturbed sleep, diffuse body pain, headache, memory loss, abdominal pain or cramping, muscle tenderness and tender trigger points (hyperalgesia).

An association has been drawn to a variety of conditions such as tension headache, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, endometriosis, temporomandibular joint syndrome, and greatly overlapping symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.

There is no gold standard in treatment of fibromyalgia. However, US national standards recommend therapies for managing symptoms and improving function. These include patient education, graduated exercise program (cardiovascular and strength), cognitive behavioral therapy, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants, alone or in combination. Patients unresponsive to early therapies may be referred to specialists. Other therapies including yoga, meditation, and acupuncture report mixed results.

Note: Measuring effectiveness of treatment may be difficult to ascertain due to patient noncompliance with prescribed treatment, patient comorbidity requiring multiple drug regimens, and inconsistencies of patient self-reporting.