History of Fibromyalgia

No one knows how or when fibromyalgia started, but it is widely believed that the symptoms were described in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Biblical character Job suffered from a disease that shared many symptoms with what we call fibromyalgia today. The various names that have been given to this condition throughout history are hysteria cal paroxysm, muscular rheumatism, and fibrositis. The term fibromyalgia was first used to describe the primary symptoms of the illness, as the prefix fibro is short for fibrous tissue, my is short for muscle, and the suffix algia is Greek for pain. The modern name only started to become widely used in 1990.

A theory that fibromyalgia was a psychiatric or psychosomatic disorder was held for most of the past 200 years. The base of modern fibromyalgia syndrome was discovered in 1972, by patients describing widespread pain and tender points. A sleep electroencephalogram study was performed in 1975. The first clinical study was published in 1981 that validated known symptoms and tender points and proposed the first data-based criteria. The concept that FMS and illness with similar conditions were interconnected was proposed in 1984.

Neurohormonal mechanisms with central sensitization were shown to be effective in 1986, and in 1990, the American College of Rheumatology criteria for fibromyalgia were published. With the lab tests and brain-imaging that is available today, it has recently been proven that fibromyalgia is caused by a central nervous system malfunction. This new discovery will hopefully bring cures or at least relief of this illness. The Fibromyalgia Network is available online and keeps patients informed about speaker-event meetings and reports on any new developments.