Abstract
This paper focuses on the pain in fibromyalgia patients and discusses the characteristics of the pain felt all over the body. It emphasizes the importance of a multi angle treatment, including methods of alleviating the pain and of orienting patients towards a regular everyday life. It also discusses the influence of various forms of patient behavior - behavior triggered by pain, by excessive patience, and by avoidance patterns - on the self-management of the pain. From a cognitive behavioral standpoint, we also experimented with the clinical application of this treatment to Fibromyalgia patients, using self-assessment tools focused on self-cognizance induced by pain, expression of emotions, and problems of behavior. The result obtained was as follows. At the stage of the self-evaluation of pain, the patients acquired the skill of verbally describing to others what the pain feels like, which led them to better understand the pain. At the stage of the self-management of pain, identifying the causes of the pain was helpful in clarifying the goals of the treatment, as well as in the prevention of pain. Adopting an at-a-glance self-assessment sheet in which patients could record their self-evaluation of the pain and a self-management plan of pain has enabled us to realize that the "unmanageable pain" mentioned by patients in daily consultation was indeed a psychosomatic symptom caused by interrelated factors of the body and the mind, which thus required psychosomatic treatment.
