Fibromyalgia is usually seen in women 20 to 40 years old. It’s nine times more common in women than men. The main complaint is that they’re in pain, they’ve been in pain for at least three months, and that it hurts all over. As a neurologist I see more patients who have neuropathic pain, which is a burning pain or numbness and tingling in all the extremities. 

It interrupts their life. They can’t do normal, daily activities because of the pain that they’re in, and the pain is all of the time. Sometimes it’s set off by an event like a car accident, or maybe a stressful event in their life. And then with the pain comes fatigue. If you’re in any chronic pain for more than nine months, you start developing depression, so depression is very common in fibromyalgia patients as well.