Is fibromyalgia a distinct clinical entity? The disapproving rheumatologist's evidence

Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome was an attempt to create, for the purposes of investigation, a relatively homogeneous clinical entity out of the clinical phenomena of musculoskeletal pain and tenderness. The attempt has foundered, arising out of circular argument and violation of its own criteria, thus creating an over-inclusive and ultimately meaningless label. The epistemological errors include the failure to distinguish a clinical feature from a disease process, the use of syndromic description without a unifying concept and failure to agree on the importance and biological nature of tenderness itself.