Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment

Dennis C. Turk

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) consists of a pervasive set of unexplained physical symptoms with generalized pain and hypersensitivity to palpation at specific body locations (tender points, or TPs; Wolfe et al., 1990; see Figure 1 ) as the cardinal features. In addition, patients report persistent fatigue, sleep disturbance, feelings of stiffness, depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and general malaise sometimes referred to as “fibro fog” (Baumstark & Buckelew, 1992). FMS may have an insidious onset without any identifiable cause, may develop following a flu-like illness, or may rapidly develop following a trauma such as a motor vehicle accident or emotional distress (Clauw & Chrousos, 1997; Turk, Okifuji, Starz, & Sinclair, 1996). The population prevalence of FMS is estimated to range from .66% to 10.50% (Schochat, Croft, & Raspe, 1994). The variability in prevalence may result from differences in classification criteria since not all of these studies used the American College of Rheumatology ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.