Researchers Find Possible Cause of Pain in Fibromyalgia

Researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom are reporting that they may have found the cause of the mysterious pain in patients with fibromyalgia. Their research points to a mismatch between the sensory and motor systems

Fibromyalgia has been a mystery condition for years because there are no clinical reasons for the pain, and yet there is a great deal of very debilitating pain, and for this reason, some doctors do not recognize fibromyalgia as a real disease. But at the same time, fibromyalgia is one of the conditions that are the most prevalent among all those seen by a rheumatologist.

In the study, they asked fibromyalgia patients to look at a reflection of one of their arms moving in one direction while simultaneously moving their other arm, which was hidden behind the mirror, in a different direction. The brain saw a reflection of the arm in front of the mirror doing one thing, but it knew that the arm behind the mirror was doing something else. In healthy people, there would have been no pain.

By dong this, you create a mismatch between what the brain sees by using the sensory system and what the brain feels by way of the motor system.

Out of the 29 participants, 26 said they had a feeling of a pain increase that lasted for a short time, a change in temperature or heaviness in the hidden arm, all of which are symptoms of a fibromyalgia flare up.

They had the participants perform some more bilateral movements with both their arms and legs with a mirror in front of them being at a right angle. One of the limbs was behind the mirror, just as in the first test. First they had them do the same movements with both of their arms or legs, then they had them make a different move with each one. Almost everyone in the group said they experienced an increase in the symptoms of fibromyalgia in the hidden arm or leg.

Patients with fibromyalgia experience allover pain, tender joints, stiffness, trouble sleeping and constant fatigue.

Close to 90% of fibromyalgia patients are women and it usually strikes between 30 and 60 years of age. But it has been found to start up in the elderly and in young children as well.

The lead researcher on the project is Dr Candy McCabe, of the University of Bath and Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases .

Source: University of Bath http://www.bath.ac.uk/