Lawrence-Wolff KM, Higgs JB, Young-McCaughan S, et al. - Among active duty service members preparing to deploy, fibromyalgia (FM) prevalence was similar to that observed for the general population of the U.S., but higher than expected for a mainly male cohort. A significantly higher prevalence of FM was evident in service members with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prevalence was the highest in those seeking treatment for PTSD.

• According to previous research with civilian populations, there exist strong links between FM and PTSD.

• This is the first large-scale study of FM prevalence in military service members with and without PTSD.

• Active duty military personnel were recruited into either an epidemiological cohort study of service members before a military deployment or 1 of 3 PTSD treatment trials.

• FM prevalence was 2.9% in the predeployment cohort and a significantly higher prevalence was reported in individuals with PTSD (10.8%) vs those without PTSD (0.8%).

• In the treatment trials, criteria for PTSD was fulfilled by all participants before treatment initiation and the prevalence of FM was estimated to be 39.7%.