What treatments are commonly used for fibromyalgia and for myofascial pain?
A combination of physical, anesthesiologic, and pharmacologic techniques are employed. Some of the most common treatments involve lidocaine injection or dry-needling of trigger points. These approaches are based on the concept that trigger points represent areas of local muscle spasm. However, the efficacy of trigger point injections has never been fully substantiated, although they do offer transient relief to some patients. Physical techniques, such as stretching, spray, and stretch (see Question 19 ), massage, and heat and cold application, have all been advocated, but none are fully validated by well-controlled studies.
