Title: The Fibromyalgia Handbook (Third Edition) by Harris H. McIlwayne, MD and Debra F. Bruce, MS. Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2003. Available on www.amazon.com.

This book is now in its third edition (2003) which speaks well about its usefulness and popularity. Although there are some newer sources of information and some new data about medicines (e.g., the FDA just approved the drug Lyrica for the treatment of fibromyalgia), this book remains largely up to date and should be in the library of every fibromyalgia patient and every health care practitioner who treats them. It is an easy and very practical read.

The main messages of the book are:

1. The disease called fibromyalgia is real and accepted by medicine.
2. While patients often suffer with a variety of emotional and physical complaints, there are no common predisposing illnesses or personality types that "cause" the disease.
3. Although the disease is believed to be the result, at least in part, of changes within the human nervous system, the cause remains unknown.
4. There is no "magic bullet" that medicine has to offer but rather a wide variety of traditional and alternative treatments that have been shown to be effective in treating this difficult disease.
5. Patients would do well to educate themselves about treatment options, many of which they can institute on their own.

Editor's Note: Left unsaid is the fact that most health care practitioners know nothing about fibromyalgia and most insurance plans do not pay for many of the treatments known to be helpful.

Richard L. Stieg, MD, MHS
Medical Director
Centennial Rehabilitation Associates in Denver Colorado