Fibromyalgia: neural signature discovered in small study

A brain signature that identifies people with fibromyalgia with 93% accuracy, has been discovered, a research group reports in Pain. It is hoped that the finding will make a major difference to future clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Fibromyalgia is chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by symptoms such as physical and mental fatigue. But it doesn’t show up in blood tests or scans so is notoriously difficult to diagnose, particularly as some symptoms overlap with those of other common chronic illnesses.

A team used functional MRI scans to study brain activity in 37 people with fibromyalgia who they compared with 35 healthy people. They exposed both groups to non-painful visual, auditory and tactile cues as well as painful pressure.

This testing allowed the scientists to identify three neurological patterns that correlated with the hypersensitivity to pain that characterises fibromyalgia.

“The novelty of this study is that it provides potential neuroimaging-based tools that can be used with new patients to inform about the degree of certain neural pathology underlying their pain symptoms,” explains lead author, Marina López-Solà. “The set of tools may be helpful to identify patient subtypes, which may be important for adjusting treatment selection on an individualized basis. This is a helpful first step that builds off of other important previous work and is a natural step in the evolution of our understanding of fibromyalgia as a brain disorder”

Next the results need to be replicated in studies involving more people. Eventually they may provide a neurological road map to brain activity that would aid diagnosis and therapeutic interventions for people with fibromyalgia.

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