History

Fibromyalgia has been studied since the early 1800s and referred to by a variety of former names, including muscular rheumatism and fibrositis. The term fibromyalgia was coined in 1976 to more accurately describe the symptoms, from the Latin fibra (fiber) and the Greek words myo (muscle) and algos (pain).

Fibromyalgia was first recognized by the American Medical Association as an illness and a cause of disability in 1987. In an article the same year, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a physician named Dr. Don Goldenberg called the syndrome Fibromyalgia.