Research on fibromyalgia over the last ten years has focused on the broad variety of pathogenetic aspects of a pain amplification syndrome. This emphasizes pain as the leading symptom. The sociomedical implications are obvious and considerable, and therefore fibromyalgia has increasingly become the subject of expert assessments. The expert assessment should not discuss the existence or non-existence of fibromyalgia, but evaluate the individual impairments, disabilities and handicaps which may lead to an individual degree of dysfunctioning.