Walitt B, Fitzcharles MA, Hassett AL et al.
National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases, Wichita, KS, USA.
J Rheumatol 2011;38:2238–46.
Editor’s note: A question often posed by patients with fibromyalgia (FM) is to what extent they can expect an improvement over the years following diagnosis. Previous studies have lacked statistical power to address this question and have not followed up patients over the long term. In this study the investigators sought to assess the following: the stability, rate, and overall change in FM symptoms over time; the stability of FM criteria and the rate of change from criteria-positive to criteria-negative; and the relation of symptoms to criteria and the predictors of symptoms.