Talk:Fibromyalgia

Removing "Impact on partners" section

Like the other commenter pointed out, it is too short to warrant its own section. I also question whether it's pertinent for a page on a disabling chronic condition to talk about its effects on the partners of the people actually suffering. 129.97.124.15 (talk) 13:15, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

Fibromyalgia

I think it would be appropriate to add the name, Virginia Roberts Giuffre to the list of persons who were diagnosed with with Fibromyalgia. ~2025-39046-41 (talk) 16:25, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

I inadvertently added the word ‘with’ twice. Please remove one of them. ~2025-39046-41 (talk) 16:28, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

Improving top-importance medicine articles: Join the Vital Signs campaign 2026

The goal of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Vital Signs 2026 campaign is to bring all 101 top-importance articles—including this one—up to at least B-class quality. Many of these articles are widely read but overdue for review, so even small improvements can have a big impact.

If you watch or edit this article, your help would be very welcome. You can:

1. Add yourself as a participant
2. Note the state of the article in the Progress table (is the current class still correct?)
3. Update the article based on recent clinical guidelines and review papers
4. Help address gaps, improve clarity for a broad audience, or improve image selection

To reach B class, articles should have: suitable referencing, reasonable coverage, a clear structure, good prose, helpful illustrations, and be understandable to a broad audience. Contributions of any size are appreciated. Femke (talk) 16:00, 20 December 2025 (UTC)

I don’t believe that the article can be substantially improved without a top-level review of the organization. I have fibro fog myself - I get it. But also, I have fibro fog, and the way this is set up, I’m definitely going to forget what information I came in looking for long before I find it. Cghoover8 (talk) 21:56, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Proposal to update the Lead Paragraph and Short Description

I'd like to propose an update of the short description and a rewrite of the opening overview paragraph to improve readability (per WP:LEAD) and to upgrade the sourcing (per WP:MEDRS).

Currently, the lead relies solely on patient-facing educational websites (the NHS and gesundheitsinformation.de). Because of this, the prose reads a bit like a clunky diagnostic checklist. It also lacks the current medical consensus regarding the pathogenic mechanism of central sensitization, simply describing it as "unknown, with several pathophysiologies proposed."

The short description is vague and oversimplifying, "chronic pain of unknown cause."

I propose smoothing out the prose to be more concise and encyclopedic, upgrading the citations to recent peer-reviewed review articles that specifically highlight central nervous system involvement, and making the short description more clear and precise.

Proposed Short Description: "Chronic multi-symptomatic pain disorder" (replaces "chronic pain of unknown cause").

Proposed New Opening: "Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive difficulties, among other symptoms. [1] While the exact cause remains unknown, central sensitization is a key mechanism of the disorder, involving abnormal pain processing in the central nervous system. [1, 2]

New WP:MEDRS sources to replace the patient education material:

1. Mezhov, V., et al. (2021). "Central sensitivity and fibromyalgia." Internal Medicine Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.15430 Relevant sections: "Fibromyalgia presents with symptoms of widespread pain, fatigue, sleeping and cognitive disturbances as well as other somatic symptoms. It often overlaps with other conditions termed ‘central sensitivity syndromes’, such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and temporomandibular disorder. Central sensitisation, mediated by amplified processing in the central nervous system, has been identified as the key pathogenic mechanism in these disorders. The term ‘central sensitivity’ can be used to describe collectively the clinical presentation of these disorders."
2. Siracusa, R., et al. (2021). Fibromyalgia: Pathogenesis, Mechanisms, Diagnosis and Treatment Options Update. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22083891 Relevant sections: "It is known that fibromyalgia is caused by a central sensitization phenomenon characterized by the dysfunction of neuro-circuits, which involves the perception, transmission and processing of afferent nociceptive stimuli, with the prevalent manifestation of pain at the level of the locomotor system."

Let me know if there are any objections to implementing this cleaner, better-sourced version.

burntsienna (talk) 21:36, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Please have a look at WP:LLMS. "It also lacks the current medical consensus regarding the pathogenic mechanism of central sensitization" I don't think this is a consensus, and the mechanism(s) underlying central sensitization isn't known. You can see this discussed under the pathophysiology section. In regards to one of the sources you provided, see WP:MDPI.

However I agree that the opening and short description could be improved. I think your proposed short description is an improvement. In terms of getting into the details of the causes/mechanism behind fibromyalgia, I would go into that detail in a paragraph besides the opening paragraph, but something similar to your proposed opening could work. Tristario (talk) 03:34, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

What if I changed the wording to "While the exact cause remains unknown, central sensitization is hypothesized to be a key mechanism of the disorder, involving abnormal pain processing in the central nervous system."

My understanding is that although the pathophysiology is not fully understood, there is at least some consensus that central sensitization and altered pain processing is likely playing some significant role in the disorder, even the details are debated. Do you disagree? It seems unhelpfully vague to simply say "the cause is unknown" with no reference at all to central sensitization. burntsienna (talk) 05:35, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Maybe you could do something like "While the exact cause remains unknown, the pathogenesis has been hypothesized to involve abnormal pain processing in the central nervous system", and put it in a paragraph besides the first one. Have you looked at this review article, by the way? Tristario (talk) 05:58, 21 May 2026 (UTC)