FIBROMYALGIA, CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS E PHYSIOPATHOLOGY: A REVIEW ARTICLE

Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by chronic musculoskeletal pain associated with neuromodulatory symptoms, extremely complex that brings daily challenges for its sufferers, such as the social stigma of the invisible pain, the lack of injury that explains such chronic pain. This syndrome has a high prevalence in the world population, 2.5% in Brazil, affecting mostly women aged 17 to 89 years. (REZENDE et al, 2013). The diagnosis is exclusively clinical, but laboratory and imaging tests help to exclude other hypotheses. According to the American College of American Rheumatology (ACR), the main criteria considered are disturbed sleep, chronic diffuse pain with numerous tender points. Although its pathophysiology is still unknown, it is known that there is a hypersensitivity of the pain pathway, causing analog situations to bring discomfort and pain to the patient. The pathogenesis behind this hypersensitivity lies in the deregulation of essential neurotransmitters in the functioning of our body, such as serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine, endorphin, among others that act not only in cognitive functions, commands, thoughts but also in mood and physical functions. Since some of these neurotransmitters acts in the pain modulator gate, their deficiency leads to disproportionate pain, that`s why some antidepressants and anxiolytics are used as treatments, to inhibit their reuptake to try to balance this mismatch.