Fibromyalgia is a disorder that characterizes itself with chronic pain and painful response to pressure in muscles and connective tissues.
It's symptoms are not restricted to pain, thereby enabling the term Firbromyalgia Syndrome to be used.
Symptoms other than pain include joint stiffness, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and some people report symptoms such as bladder and bowel problems, along with difficulty with swallowing, numbness and tingling and also cognitive dysfunction.
This disorder is often associated with psychiatric problems such as anxiety and depression, along with posttraumatic stress disorder.
It is a disorder that affects approximately two to four percent of the population and is mainly reported in females.
Research evidence supports the conclusion that abnormalities are present within the central nervous system affecting different brain regions.
The cause of Fibromyalgia is unknown at this time and a theory has been proposed that patients with this disorder have a lowered threshold for pain because of sensitivity within the brain to pain signals.
There is evidence that there is a genetic predisposition in the development of this disease, with stress being the most important factor in the development of this disease.
It is theorized that exposure to certain stressful situations can alter the function of the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands which throws off the hormonal axis and serotonin levels drop which then effects sleep, concentration, mood, and pain.
There has also been hypotheses that neck trauma increases the risk in the development of Fibromyalgia.
Unfortunately there is no one test that determines conclusively the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia.