Fibromyalgia: New Study Unravels The Mystery Of This Chronic Pain Disorder

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder characterized by recurring pain along with other symptoms, such as sleep disturbances, depressive moods, chronic fatigue and digestive problems. Fibromyalgia patients are highly sensitive to pain. What causes it remains largely unknown, making its treatment difficult. Pain becomes out of control for people with fibromyalgia. But why? Finally, researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have unraveled this mystery.

The research team at the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy led by Professor Martin Diers found that certain areas in the brain that are involved in processing pain don’t work normally in fibromyalgia patients. This makes pain out of their control and difficult to bear.

In healthy people, these brain areas ensure that pain that we can control is easier to bear. In those with fibromyalgia, the activity of these brain areas was disrupted. The findings of their study were reported in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical.

Understanding the neural mechanisms behind Fibromyalgia

How we perceive pain determines the degree of pain we experience as well as the restriction caused by it. Healthy people have the feeling that they can control the pain and shut it down themselves, which makes them tolerate pain better. Fibromyalgia patients, however, do not have the ability to control repeated attacks of pain. Until now, the underlying neural mechanisms behind it were unclear.

In their study, Martin Diers and his team compared the brain activities of healthy participants and fibromyalgia patients (all women) while they were exposed to heat pain. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor their brain activities.

When the healthy participants terminated the pain stimulus themselves, many frontal brain areas were activated, which appear to be involved in modulating pain. However, no such activations were detected in fibromyalgia patients. This showed impaired pain processing in fibromyalgia patients, noted Martin Diers.

Some facts about Fibromyalgia you should know

The World Health Organisation (WHO) added Fibromyalgia in its catalogue in 1994.
Most Fibromyalgia patients are women, but anyone can get it.
Fibromyalgia can affect people of any age, including children, but the risk increases as you get older, usually beginning in middle age.
People with rheumatic diseases, mood disorders (depression or anxiety, lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, or conditions that cause pain, are more likely to have this disorder.
Fibromyalgia can run in families, but people with no family history of the disorder can also develop it.
Fibromyalgia cannot be cured, but treatment can help manage the symptoms.
It is typically treated with a combination of exercises, psychological and behavioral therapy, and medications.

Fibromyalgia may be mistaken for osteoarthritis, bursitis, and tendinitis. In Fibromyalgia, you would experience pain and stiffness throughout your body, rather than in a specific area. The pain will remain for months. Along with the constant dull ache, you may also experience digestive problems such as belly pain, bloating, queasiness, constipation, and diarrhea (irritable bowel syndrome); headaches; sensitivity to cold, heat, light, or sound; fatigue and tiredness; sleep problems, sepression and anxiety.