Fibromyalgia

For a lay person:

Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition of widespread pain and tenderness, with tiredness, poor sleep and difficulty concentrating. It does not damage the joints or muscles, but it can be very disabling.

For a trained medical person:

A chronic widespread pain disorder with central sensitisation. Diagnosis is clinical (ACR 2016 criteria) after excluding inflammatory and endocrine causes. Management centres on education, graded exercise, sleep, psychological therapy, and medicines such as amitriptyline or duloxetine.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Liver-Spleen Disharmony; Damp-Heat; Qi and yin deficiency with liver depression and fire effulgence; Spleen-kidney yang deficiency with liver depression; Spleen qi and yin and yang deficiency with deficiency heat and liver depression; Blood Stasis; Phlegm nodulation. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.