Differential diagnosis of pain and fibromyalgia

Abstract

This article examines the principal hypotheses on the pain caused byfibromyalgia and tries to establish a differential diagnosis with other diseasescharacterized by the spread of muscular pain and pain in the muscle-tendoninsertion, which have a higher prevalence in women than in men. The differential diagnosis of the diseases that can produce the spread of muscular pain include more than twenty conditions. New evidence demonstrates that fibromyalgia may have undiagnosed biological causes or may be due to the action of chemicals either in the work place or in the environment