History Of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a disease that causes pain in the muscles and is suffered by people in various degrees. Some of the symptoms may be an inability to sleep properly at night and many tender points on the body. The disease is mainly found in people between the ages of 20 and 55, though children can have it too.

The first person known to have suffered symptoms of fibromyalgia was Job, in the Bible. Since then, others have had the symptoms too, which no name was given for several years. The disease was first recognized by doctors in the 1980s and was then called muscular rheumatism. Some other names given were chronic rheumatism, fibrositis and myalgia. In the late 1800s, a doctor gave it the name of neurasthenia. In the early 1900s, a doctor discovered that the symptoms could be affected by such things like rain. The name of fibrositis was later ruled out as there was no known inflammation connected with the disease. In 1976, a doctor gave it the name by which it is known today, which is fibromyalgia.

Many studies were performed on the disease from the 1970s to the 1990s through which various opinions were formed and treatments discovered. It was during this time that the condition was verified as a disabling condition because of the effects of the pain on its victims. At first, this was thought to be a mental disease, but that idea was later ruled out by doctors. However, there are still some professionals today that want to consider it as such.