What do people search online concerning the “elusive” fibromyalgia? Insights from a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Google Trends

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disease, characterized by pain, fatigue, and poor sleep quality. Patients and mainly those with chronic diseases tend to search for health-related material online. Google Trends (GT), an online tracking system of Internet hit-search volumes that recently merged with its sister project Google Insights for Search (Google Inc.), was used to explore Internet activity related to fibromyalgia. Digital interest in fibromyalgia and related topics searched worldwide has been reported in the last 13 years. A slight decline in this interest has been observed through the years, remaining stable in the last 5 years. Fibromyalgia web behavior exhibited a regular, cyclic pattern, even though no seasonality could be detected. Similar findings have been reported among rheumatoid arthritis and depression. However, differently from rheumatoid arthritis and depression, the focus of the fibromyalgia-related queries was more concentrated on drug side effects and the “elusive” nature of fibromyalgia: is it a real or imaginary condition? Does it really exist or is it all in your head? A tremendous amount of information on fibromyalgia and related topics exist online. Still many queries have been raised and repeated constantly by fibromyalgia patients in the last 13 years. Therefore, physicians should be aware of the common concerns of people or patients regarding fibromyalgia in order to give a proper answers and education.