To the Editor:
Following the publication of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Preliminary Diagnostic Criteria for Fibromyalgia and Measurement of Symptom Severity1, we published a modified version of the criteria in the Journal of Rheumatology that could be used for survey and clinical research based on patient self-report2. The modified criteria have been used extensively3,4,5,6, but there has been some confusion about what to call the modified criteria and the various scales that it contains. They should not be called ACR criteria because the ACR criteria are not self-report criteria. We suggest that the modified criteria be called the Fibromyalgia Research Criteria, because they were designed for research, not clinical care. The summed Widespread Pain Index and Symptom Severity Score should be called the Polysymptomatic Distress Scale3.
A standard version of the research criteria questionnaire is available on request by e-mail from fwolfe{at}arthritis-research.org.
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