8 Things to Know About Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is more common in women than in men. Clare Burdier / Alamy Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Quick — can you name a medical condition that:

afflicts about 10 million Americanscauses widespread joint pain, memory problems, mood and sleep disturbances, and headachesmimics the symptoms of some other pain conditionsstumps powerful

medical toolspuzzles a wide swath of the medical community

If you said, fibromyalgia, take a bow — and welcome to the complicated, distressing, puzzling and frustrating world of millions of sufferers.

Because even powerful tools like magnetic resonance imaging can't seem to find the cause of the patients' pain, it may take years to get a proper diagnosis, says researcher Daniel Clauw,

M.D., a rheumatologist and professor of anesthesiology and medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

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"Doctors often don't know how to treat fibromyalgia, or they treat it wrong with opioids," Clauw says. Some doctors don't consider it a separate medical condition, but see it as a chronic

pain condition brought on by stress.

Clauw doesn't buy into the notion that fibromyalgia isn't a real medical problem. In the field of pain medicine, "fibromyalgia's realities are well established," he says.

Here, a few facts that he and other researchers say may help release fibromyalgia from foggy misconceptions.

processing system

Fibromyalgia does not involve inflammation or damage to joints. Brain imaging and studies have shown that fibromyalgia is a disorder of the central nervous system.