There is a growing interest in the study of Fibromyalgia Syndrome in order to understand the mechanisms underlying this condition and to offer a better treatment response to the individuals who suffer this impairing condition.

In order to achieve this goal it is important to improve the assessment of key variables such as pain and fatigue intensity, and mood, among others. One methodology that could be very useful in this field is the experience-sampling methodology (ESM) aimed to explore the daily experience of individuals suffering different pathologies. ESM is a within-day self-assessment technique in which participants are prompted at established or random intervals to report on relevant variables related to their health condition. This method presents several advantages over traditional assessment (Brown, Strauman, Barrantes-Vidal, Silvia and Kwapil, 2011): a) it enhances ecological validity, because it assesses participants in their normal daily environment; b) minimizes retrospective bias, by assessing the participant’s experience in the moment; and c) allows for a context examination of the experience.

Making use of ICTs, our research group has developed a mobile device software called FEMA-M (Fibromyalgia Ecological Momentary Assessment-Mobile), whose objective is the assessment of 3 key variables (pain and fatigue intensity, and mood) in the study of Fibromyalgia.