Fibro is a difficult disease to characterize. After taking a few months and reading a bit about the different studies and different ways physicians have described fibro, it becomes pretty obvious that while there are a few common threads, there’s a fairly wide range of definitions of fibromyalgia.
I’ve listed a few of the ways that fibromyalgia has been characterized. My suspicion is that it would take elements of everything below (and others I haven’t made note of) to really be able to define the disorder. I also suspect that the below is not characterizing the disease itself but describing the consequences of the underlying cause of fibromyalgia, whatever that may be. The below are hints, bits of the puzzle….
| A disorder of central sensitization and dysregulation | Wolfe F., et al | |
| Enhanced pain sensitivity maintained by central mechanisms | Bosma R.L., et al | |
| Dysregulation of the stress systems | Riva R., et al | |
| A stress-associated syndrome with chronic, widespread pain | Aoki Y., et al | |
| Abnormal pain processing and central sensitization | Choy E.H. | |
| Central sensitization as a consequence of altered endogenous pain- and stress-response system and continuous nociceptive input | Nugraha, et al | |
| Idiopathic environmental intolerances (multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome) | De Luca et al | |
| Sympathetically maintained neuropathic pain syndrome – autonomic nervous system dysfunction | Vargas-Alarcon et al | |
| Inadequate thyroid hormone regulation | Lowe et al | |
| A disorder of premature neurologic aging | Russell and Larson | |
| A complex neurophysiologic imbalance of multiple areas involved in pain processing, with consequent central sensitization | Feraco et al | |
| A brain dysregulation of nociceptive and pain processes | Feraco et al | |
| A disorder of perceptual organization | Dohrenbusch et al | |
| Heightened central sensitivity to peripheral sensations | ||
Fibromy What? 