One of the most important factors in treating fibromyalgia symptoms is finding a doctor who is experienced in treating the condition. Any rheumatologist and many family physicians and general internists are experienced in treating fibromyalgia. You may also want to consider seeing a physical therapist.

Treatment for fibromyalgia usually consists of lifestyle changes and medications. Things you can do to help improve your fibromyalgia symptoms include:

• Reduce stress: Using stress management techniques to cope with life stress and avoiding overexertion and emotional stress may help improve your symptoms.
• Practice good sleep hygiene: Getting enough sleep is essential to preventing fatigue.
• Exercise regularly: Regular exercise often decreases symptoms of fibromyalgia. Talk to your doctor about the types of exercise that are appropriate for you.
• Eat healthy: Maintaining good nutrition and a healthy weight can help improve symptoms and overall health.

Medications that can improve the symptoms of fibromyalgia include:

• Analgesics: Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen may help relieve the pain of fibromyalgia, but they have limited effectiveness and so your doctor may recommend using them in conjunction with other medications.
• Antidepressants: Certain antidepressant medications including amitriptyline and nortriptyline (Pamelor) may help improve sleep in people with fibromyalgia. Others, including Sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil) may help alleviate symptoms of depression. The newer antidepressants duloxetine (Cymbalta) and venlafaxine (Effexor) may help control pain in people with fibromyalgia.
• Pregabalin (Lyrica) is the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically to treat fibromyalgia. Significant improvement occurs in at least half of the people who take it.

Other medications that are not recommended for treating fibromyalgia but are sometimes inappropriately used include prescription sleeping pills such as zolpidem (Ambien), benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium), narcotics such as codeine, and corticosteroids, such as prednisone. Sleeping pills, benzodiazepines, and narcotics can only be used for short periods of time due to the potential for abuse and so they are not helpful for long-term symptom relief. Corticosteroids are not effective at treating pain from fibromyalgia, probably because the pain is not caused by inflammation, as it is in many other disorders. Also, long term use of corticosteroids will have serious (and potentially irreversible) effects on several other major body systems and so should be rigorously avoided.