More Clues To Fibromyalgia Pain

A new study demonstrates that Fibromyalgia patients have more "connectivity" between brain networks and regions of the brain involved in pain processing.  

This appears to be an associative finding and meaningful suggestions are not clear. 

Researchers had 18 women with fibromyalgia undergo six-minute MRI brain scans, and compared their results to women without the condition. 

Participants were asked to rate the intensity of the pain they were feeling at the time of the test. Some people reported feeling little pain, while others reported feeling more intense pain. 

Brain scans showed that connectivity, or neural activity, between certain brain networks and the insular cortex, a region of the brain involved in pain processing, was heightened in women with fibromyalgia compared to those without the condition. Strength of pain was correlated with connectivity. 

The new study is different in that fibromyalgia patients' pain responses were measured while they were at rest and not being exposed to anything painful. 

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome that's characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, insomnia, and the presence of multiple tender points. The syndrome can also cause psychological issues, including anxiety, depression and memory and concentration problems, sometimes called the "fibromyalgia fog." 

Prior research has shown that people with fibromyalgia feel a given amount of pain more intensely than others. In other words, studies have shown a typical person might rate a painful stimuli a "one" on a scale of one to 10, while a person with fibromyalgia might rate the pain a 5 or higher. 

Researchers believe that this study shows there is increased connectivity between different brain centers that connect the purely sensory pain processing centers of the brain. 

However, 18 women in a study is not a large study. For more meaning, hundreds would be required to put strength into any meaningful conclusion to this finding. 

Confusion about fibromyalgia began to change early this decade, when brain scans showed pain-processing abnormalities in fibromyalgia patients. 

When the first neuro-imaging study really demonstrated fibromyalgia patients were different than normal individuals who, at a neurobiological level, were truly experiencing more pain at lower intensities. 

The new research moves understanding of the condition a step further, by exploring what's happening in the brain during a resting state. 

About 10 million Americans are believed to have fibromyalgia, almost 90 percent of whom are women, according to the National Fibromyalgia Association. Sufferers report a history of widespread pain in all four quadrants of the body for at least three months, and pain in at least 11 of 18 "tender points."