Aaron, Leslie A, Buchwald, Dedra · Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology · 2003 · DOI
Many people with fibromyalgia also experience other chronic conditions like ME/CFS, irritable bowel syndrome, and jaw pain. This review examines how often these conditions occur together and suggests that doctors should check for multiple conditions when treating fibromyalgia patients. Treatment works better when it addresses all of a patient's overlapping symptoms, not just one condition.
This study is important because it demonstrates that ME/CFS frequently co-occurs with fibromyalgia and other medically unexplained syndromes, suggesting common underlying mechanisms. For ME/CFS patients, recognition of these overlapping conditions enables more comprehensive clinical assessment and potentially more effective, multi-targeted treatment strategies.
This review does not establish causality or shared etiology between fibromyalgia and co-morbid conditions—it documents association only. The chapter does not provide new empirical data on prevalence rates, and it does not prove that screening protocols improve patient outcomes or that any specific intervention is effective for addressing overlapping symptoms.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →