An Integrative Approach to Fibromyalgia: Evidence-based Modalities with a Case Study Discussion

Focus Areas: Integrative Approaches to Care, Alleviating Pain Fibromyalgia is a difficult disorder both to diagnose and treat. To complicate this further, patients often present with several co-existing conditions, medical and/or psychological, that may involve a great deal of symptom overlap. Patients often are only moderately if at all responsive to traditional medications and physical therapy modalities. This often leaves patients feeling frustrated, confused, and misunderstood, leading to secondary psychological processes that impact both the pain experience itself and quality of life. Patients often seek CAM therapies as primary treatments regardless of the level of research evidence available. Helping them maintain a sense of hope and selectively directing them to coordinated evidence-based treatments is crucial to their continued healing. This panel will discuss the role of multiple complementary practices, as well as the research basis for each, in the treatment of fibromyalgia. Starting with the role of the integrative physician in evaluation and establishing a treatment protocol and examining the roles of traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic, massage/energy techniques and health psychology in the long-term process of care. Issues around coordination of care, patient compliance with sometimes overwhelming lifestyle changes, mood shifts, maintaining hope, and continued provider communication around progress and plan changes will be addressed. These topics will also be applied and addressed within a case study format that will involve attendees’ participation.