Overcoming Barriers to Care in Fibromyalgia

Andrea Chadwick, MD, MSc, identifies the absence of a defined medical home as a central barrier in fibromyalgia care, noting that this chronic pain condition affects multiple domains of functioning and therefore requires ongoing, longitudinal management analogous to that for diabetes or heart failure. Patients frequently struggle to access clinicians who can assume long-term responsibility for diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, resulting in disparities in outcomes linked to limited specialist availability.To address this gap, Dr Chadwick emphasizes the pivotal role of education for primary care physicians on contemporary diagnostic criteria and evidence-based pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies. Because primary care clinicians already manage other chronic diseases, equipping them and encouraging them to feel empowered to diagnose and treat fibromyalgia is proposed as a pragmatic strategy to reduce access disparities and provide sustained, comprehensive care.