Fibromyalgia syndrome: still a medical dilemma

This issue of “Reumatismo ” deals with a variety of aspects of chronic wide-spread pain (CWP) and its rheumatological quasi-synonym of fibromyalgia (FM) (1). The definitions of CWP and FM both have a long history. Chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions are universally prevalent in both genders and all age groups and, al-though their pathophysiology varies, they are inter-related anatomically and by their association with pain and impaired physi-cal function. However, there is still no con-sensus as to whether FM should be consid-ered a discrete entity or just the tip of the iceberg of CWP (2). Topography can be used if the pain is lo