Fibromyalgia Health Center

News and Features Related to Fibromyalgia

Naltrexone May Ease Fibromyalgia Symptoms

April 17, 2009 -- An inexpensive drug called naltrexone may make a good treatment for fibromyalgia, report researchers at Stanford University. Naltrexone isn't a new drug; it's been around for more than 30 years and is used to treat opioid addiction. Stanford's Jarred Younger, PhD, and Sean Mackey,
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Fibromyalgia and Exercise: Yes, You Can

Take it from a Cincinnati, Ohio, mother of six, Pat Holthaun: Exercise may be the last thing you feel like doing if you have fibromyalgia, but it’s also one of the best things you can do to decrease pain. Like many people, when Holthaun was diagnosed with the widespread pain disorder several years a
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FDA OKs Fibromyalgia Drug Savella

Jan. 15, 2009 -- The FDA has approved a new drug called Savella for the management of fibromyalgia. Savella belongs to a class of drugs called serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), which include some antidepressants. The drug companies behind Savella -- Forest Laboratories Inc. a
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Antidepressants Help Treat Fibromyalgia

Jan. 13, 2009 -- Certain antidepressants can be effective treatments for fibromyalgia, but it is not clear if they are good choices for long-term use, a new research analysis shows. Fibromyalgia remains a poorly understood and hard-to-treat disorder, characterized by widespread pain with no clear ca
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Diagnosing Fibromyalgia: Common Misdiagnoses

Jackie Yencha hit the wall at age 22. "I couldn't handle the pain any more," she says. "I was terribly fatigued, not feeling well, not sleeping well." But it took Yencha seven years to get an accurate diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Her first diagnosis -- reflex sympathetic dystrophy -- resulted in exper
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Living With Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue

Jackie Yencha is somebody who gets things done -- as much as possible. She has been coping with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue most of her life. But she pushed through college, got married, is raising two kids, and holds a top-level volunteer position with a fibromyalgia advocacy agency. She and h
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Fibromyalgia a ‘Real Disease,’ Study Shows

Nov. 3, 2008 -- A new brain scan study concludes that fibromyalgia is related to abnormalities of blood flow in the brain. "Fibromyalgia may be related to a global dysfunction of cerebral pain-processing," study author Eric Guedj, MD, of Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de la Timone, in Marseille, Fra
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Exercise Can Ease Fibromyalgia Pain

Fibromyalgia is so difficult to diagnose that it can take years before patients understand what’s making their bodies ache. When Lynn Matallana began noticing unexplained pain and fatigue in 1993 -- “pain in every part of my body, pain that felt like acid in my veins” -- it took her nearly two years
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FDA OKs Cymbalta for Fibromyalgia

June 16, 2008 -- The FDA has approved the drug Cymbalta to treat fibromyalgia. That makes Cymbalta the first antidepressant approved to treat fibromyalgia, which is a chronic disorder of the muscles and related soft tissue, including ligaments and tendons. Its main symptoms are muscle pain, fatigue,
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Fibromyalgia: The Diet Connection

The condition is called fibromyalgia. It consists of a complex array of symptoms that include widespread muscle and joint pain along with overwhelming fatigue. And none of it goes away, no matter how much rest you get. Fibromyalgia affects up to 4% of the population -- mostly women. And there is sti
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