Aaron, Leslie A, Buchwald, Dedra · Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology · 2003 · DOI
Many people with fibromyalgia also experience other chronic conditions like ME/CFS, irritable bowel syndrome, and jaw pain. This review examines how often these conditions occur together and suggests that doctors should check for multiple conditions when treating fibromyalgia patients. Treatment works better when it addresses all of a patient's overlapping symptoms, not just one condition.
This study is important because it demonstrates that ME/CFS frequently co-occurs with fibromyalgia and other medically unexplained syndromes, suggesting common underlying mechanisms. For ME/CFS patients, recognition of these overlapping conditions enables more comprehensive clinical assessment and potentially more effective, multi-targeted treatment strategies.
This review does not establish causality or shared etiology between fibromyalgia and co-morbid conditions—it documents association only. The chapter does not provide new empirical data on prevalence rates, and it does not prove that screening protocols improve patient outcomes or that any specific intervention is effective for addressing overlapping symptoms.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Aaron, Leslie A & Buchwald, Dedra (2003). Chronic diffuse musculoskeletal pain, fibromyalgia and co-morbid unexplained clinical conditions.. Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1521-6942(03)00033-0
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-aaron-2003-chronic-diffuse,
author = {Aaron, Leslie A and Buchwald, Dedra},
title = {Chronic diffuse musculoskeletal pain, fibromyalgia and co-morbid unexplained clinical conditions.},
journal = {Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology},
year = {2003},
doi = {10.1016/s1521-6942(03)00033-0},
note = {PubMed: 12849712},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aaron-2003-chronic-diffuse},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aaron-2003-chronic-diffuse
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