Brain signals disrupted in people with fibromyalgia

Brain scans have revealed that people with fibromyalgia could process pain differently, says a small study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

A total of 31 people with fibromyalgia were compared to 14 healthy controls. MRI scans showed that those with fibromyalgia were not as able to prepare for pain as healthy people and were less likely to respond to the promise of pain relief.

This altered brain processing could explain why people with fibromyalgia tend to feel pain more intensely and don’t respond as well to opioid-based painkillers.

“Our findings suggest that fibromyalgia patients exhibit altered brain responses to punishing and rewarding events, such as expectancy of pain and relief of pain,” says Dr Marco Loggia who led the work. “These observations may contribute to explain the heightened sensitivity to pain, as well as the lack of effectiveness of pain medications such as opioids, observed in these patients. Future studies should further investigate the neurochemical basis underlying these dysfunctions.”

The study provides “another piece of evidence that in fibromyalgia something is fundamentally amiss, and this idea that it is a peripheral disorder is mistaken,” says Prof John Kassel from Ohio State University’s Werner Medical Center.

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