The Medical Freedom Channel

The New York Times last week published an incredibly dismissive page-one story about fibromyalgia, questioning whether it is a ‘real’ disease. The hook for the story are the advertisements for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition: In November, Pfizer began a television ad campaign for Lyrica that features a middle-aged woman who appears to be reading from her diary. ‘Today I struggled with my fibromyalgia; I had pain all over,’ she says, before turning to the camera and adding, ‘Fibromyalgia is a real, widespread pain condition.’ Author Alex Berenson writes that doctors who specialize in treating fibromyalgia welcome Lyrica — and the other fibromyalgia drugs likely to receive FDA approval this year — because they will encourage doctors to address a disease that is undertreated and whose sufferers are not always believed. ‘What’s going to happen with fibromyalgia is going to be the exact thing that happened to depression with Prozac,’ said Dr. Dan Clauw, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan who has consulted with Pfizer, Lilly and Forest. ‘These are legitimate problems that need treatments.’” (01/24/08)