Fibromyalgia is a real disease. Or so says Pfizer in a new television advertising campaign for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition, whose very existence is questioned by some doctors.
Skip to next paragraph
Jamie Rector for The New York Times
Lynne Matallana, who says she has fibromyalgia, said the drugs would aid acceptance.
Related
Times Health Guide: Fibromyalgia
For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream.
But other doctors — including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind — say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.
Well, the drug is a painkiller, there's lots of things that can be used for. It doesn't matter whether or not theres a specific condition called fibromyalgia, the market exists and all the people have pain symptoms.
