Nebraska Supreme Court Reverses Exclusion of Differential Diagnosis Testimony that Trauma Caused Fibromyalgia

Last Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court held that a trial court should have admitted testimony from experts who opined, based on a differential diagnosis, that a plaintiff's fibromyalgia was caused by her automobile accident. The court said that although the generic causal link between trauma and fibromyalgia is subject to heated medico-scientific dispute, there is enough support in the peer-reviewed literature for a physician to "rule in" trauma as a potential cause. The high court also held that the experts took sufficient steps to "rule out" other causes. The opinion was unanimous. See Epp v. Lauby, 271 Neb. 640 (Neb. 2006).