The skin could be the source of fibromyalgia pain

Scientists have uncovered an overabundance of sensory nerve fibres that consistently appears in the skin of women with fibromyalgia… and this could be responsible for the symptoms of the debilitating condition.

A US team analysed tiny skin samples taken from the palms of women with fibromyalgia and found that specific sites within the blood vessels in the skin had unusually high amounts of sensory nerve fibres. These sites play an important part in regulating body temperature.

“Instead of being in the brain, the pathology consists of excessive sensory nerve fibres around specialised blood vessel structures located in the palms of the hands,” explains Dr Frank Rice who led the research. “This discovery provides concrete evidence of a fibromyalgia-specific pathology which can now be used for diagnosing the disease, and as a novel starting point for developing more effective therapeutics.”

The findings could explain why people with fibromyalgia tend to have particularly tender and painful hands. And they shed light on the widespread muscle pain experienced by people with fibromyalgia, as much of the blood flows through the hands or feet before being diverted to other tissues.

“We can hope that this new finding will lead to new treatments for fibromyalgia patients who now receive little or no relief from any medicine,” says senior pain researcher Dr Gary Bennett.