Maquet, D, Croisier, J L, Crielaard, J M · Revue medicale de Liege · 2000
This review article examines fibromyalgia (FM), a condition causing widespread muscle pain that affects about 2% of people. While doctors can diagnose fibromyalgia using a specific test (checking for tenderness at 18 specific body points), scientists still don't fully understand what causes it. This article summarizes what researchers knew in 2000 about how fibromyalgia develops and how doctors treat it.
Understanding fibromyalgia is relevant to ME/CFS research because these conditions often overlap or are confused with each other, and both involve central nervous system dysfunction and widespread pain. This review helps clarify how FM differs from CFS through specific diagnostic criteria, which is important for accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment of both conditions.
This review does not establish the underlying cause of fibromyalgia or prove that any particular treatment is effective—it only summarizes existing research. It does not demonstrate whether FM and CFS are distinct diseases or shared manifestations of a common process. The 2000 publication date means it does not reflect advances in understanding from the past two decades.
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 →
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