Toward a Transdisciplinary Integration of the Health Disciplines: The Case of the Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Abstract

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder with a multifaceted nature and its biological, psychological and social aspects are strongly interconnected. Therefore, the integration of the different health disciplines is strongly recommended for its care. There is a growing number of interventions based on this principle but each of them is heterogeneous with regards to how the included disciplines are integrated with each other. With this regards, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programs are distinguished. The former are organized in order to treat the various aspects of the syndrome using different perspectives and their various treatment components are usually provided separately by the different care providers. Conversely, interdisciplinary treatments are planned in order to foster a dialogue between the operators by providing a joint conduction of the treatment or scheduling plenary discussions about the cases. In the field of chronic pain, some authors are suggesting to move beyond these approaches and to plan transdisciplinary treatments, which would allow the professionals to move across their disciplinary boundaries. Although no examples of these interventions have been proposed for the treatment of fibromyalgia, there is a visible trend in the literature toward more holistic forms of care.

Keywords

• fibromyalgia
• interdisciplinary
• transdisciplinary
• patient care