Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS: Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS are both common overlapping disorders characterised by chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive complaints, gastrointestinal disturbance and affective problems.
There is further overlap of symptomatology and clinical findings with HSD/hEDS[
54]. High rates of hypermobility are present in patients with fibromyalgia both as adults[
55] and children[
56], and in patients with ME/CFS, again both in adults[
57] and children[
58]. Hypermobility is specifically linked to the expression of pain and fatigue in these patients[
59]. Conversely, the majority of EDS patients suffer from marked fatigue[
60]. In fact, many patients with HSD/hEDS meet Fukada criteria for diagnosis of CFS[
50], and hence it is argued that an assessment for hypermobility/variant connective tissues should be an integral part of a thorough evaluation of ME/CFS[
61].
