Fibromyalgia Management Approach: A Brief Review for Family Physicians Download PDF

Background: Fibromyalgia syndrome is a complex chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder that is believed to exist since the 16^th century expressing functional and psychosomatic symptoms. The etiology of fibromyalgia is unknown so causes that have been proposed that suggest fibromyalgia were numerous. This might confuse clinicians sometimes on promoting the existence of fibromyalgia as the disease seems to be confusing by a complex set of clinical manifestations that diverse the definition of the disease. There have been several classifications and screening criteria to develop expert diagnostic abilities for clinicians over the years. However, many health interprofessional teams, particularly primary health care providers reported a lack of training and confidence in the recent criteria and unclear diagnostic options. Supporting the fact that fibromyalgia displays a form of chronic pain that might be misdiagnosed and very difficult to identify. Objective: To assist family medicine physicians’ clinical approach towards fibromyalgia. Methodology: PubMed database was used for article selection, papers were obtained and reviewed. Conclusion: Fibromyalgia is often complex and requires multidisciplinary management as the disease might be profound with multidimensional disability. Family medicine physicians must develop the necessary clinical skills to achieve meaningful supportive management for the patient. There have been ongoing researches on developing a new diagnostic framework to improve clinicians’ diagnostic outcomes.