Fibromyalgia is a common cause of multi-regional pain and disability. This condition shows a female preponderance and is a condition whose etiology is poorly understood, despite the various intensive and invasive investigations of modern medicine. Two hypotheses have been proposed to be the underlying etiological factors in relation to this condition. The first being an abnormality in the non-rapid eye movement sleep stage, which may be due to biochemical disturbances in the body. Abnormal pain processing is the second theory that may be responsible for the exaggerated pain in response to a stimulus. (Sarac & Gur, 2006)

Worldwide literature on the subject has established that stress is an important and established risk factor to this condition. Such life stressors can cause significant psychosocial distress. In some cases of fibromyalgia, the pain remains refractory to medications. In such cases, non-pharmacologic modalities are used, such as, psycho-social modification and relaxation therapies.

Non-pharmacological...
[ View Full Essay]