Presently, the conventional medical model frames fibromyalgia as a syndrome diagnosis. As such, it is simply a name applied to a set of symptoms, primarily pain, and the finding of tender spots on examination occurring in a patient for whom no other explanation exists for this state of being.

In many ways, fibromyalgia is like so many other diseases in our Western medical history. Our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disorder is reliant on an exquisite understanding of the physiology of pain and pain perception, the effects of trauma and stress on the brain, and the ways the emotions are translated into the physiology of symptoms.

In fact, we are still in the infancy of exploration of these complex processes and, therefore, a complete understanding of how someone with FM gets sick and stays sick eludes us.