OBJECTIVE: to carry out a literature review of the evidence concerning the association of fibromyalgia and headache. METHOD: a search of databases was conducted using the keywords: fibromyalgia, headache, migraine, and tension-type headache. Abstracts which appeared to fulfill the initial selection criteria were selected and the original articles were retrieved. RESULT: seven studies met all inclusion criteria. Between 35% and 88.4% fibromyalgia patients were diagnosed as suffering of headache; 17.4% to 40% patients with headache were diagnosed as suffering of fibromyalgia. CONCLUSION: it is not clear if headache is more prevalent in fibromyalgia patients. However, fibromyalgia is more prevalent in primary headache patients, especially migraine.
fibromyalgia; headache; migraine; tension-type headache
