Regression with guaifenesin occurs at a rate of about one year for every two months of treatment. Improvement is sustained initially for only a few hours, later for days and eventually, for weeks. Duration of the illness and responsiveness to medication determine recovery time. We believe fibromyalgia is inherited. The age spread at onset suggests multiple gene involvement.
Symptoms are noticeable in adolescence or earlier if both parents are afflicted.
One of these complained of pains at age 2. She frequently awakened at night and required hot baths and massage. We feel that fibromyalgia is a retention disease like most cases of gout but with more varied tissue dispersion. Though patients respond to uricosuric agents, rates are not involved. The ubiquitous symptoms and number of organs and systems affected point to a metabolic misadventure induced by the accumulation of an anion different from urates.