Assessment and Treatment of Fibromyalgia: The Role of the Physiotherapist

Chronic wide spread pain is experienced by up to 10% of the world population, we have a responsibility as healthcare practitioners to keep up to date on the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of such pain conditions.

Fibromylagia makes up 20-50% of chronic widespread pain cases, and yet is a diagnosis not too well understood by patients and scientists alike.

This lecture will explore the current issues with diagnosis and treatment of fibromyalgia and embed this information into practical tips for how you as a health care practitioner can support people living with fibromyalgia.

Learning points:

• To learn about Chronic Widespread Pain and the subset of this that is termed Fibromyalgia Syndrome
• To consider the role and impact of the physiotherapist as a diagnostician in Chronic Widespread Pain / Fibromyalgia Syndrome
• To learn about treatment options that a physiotherapist could lead on with regards to the evidence based management of Fibromyalgia Syndrome, including pathways for onwards referral and use of the full MDT.