Drugs traditionally used to treat depression are also effective
in easing widespread pain, sleep disturbances and dismal moods
associated with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), according to a
large-scale analysis published today in JAMA The Journal of the
American Medical Association. The study confirms earlier
research about the meds' effect on symptoms associated with this
mysterious disease. Fibromyalgia, an often overlooked disorder
believed to cause widespread muscle pain, sleep disturbances,
depression and fatigue, affects up to 12 million people (4
percent of the U.S. population), nearly 11 million of them
women. The degree of debilitation caused by the disease ranges
"from very little to total," says Roland Staud, a professor of
medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine in
Gainesville, adding that he has known some patients who have
been bedridden for as long as a year because of symptoms, which
typically appear between ages 40 and 60 and may last for the
remainder of sufferers' lives. Rese