Research on the nature of FM

Brain Imaging - Unique Signatures for Every Condition "Brain imaging is the next closest technique to taking a slice of your brain and analyzing it. Researchers are learning that each painful condition will produce a unique signature. Find out about the inroads that scientists are making in the field of chronic pain, and more specifically, fibromyalgia Click here for more:  http://www.fmnetnews.com/articles-overview-brain.php

Dopamine theory of FM "Fibromyalgia is notoriously refractory to treatment," said lead investigator Patrick B. Wood, MD, assistant professor of family medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. The researchers hypothesized that sodium oxybate would regulate neurotransmitter levels required for normal sleep cycles, which are frequently disrupted during stage III and IV sleep in people with fibromyalgia. Doctor Patrick Wood's been taking on fibromyalgia there with a new theory...one he says will revolutionize the way the disease is treated. Doctor Wood's research links fibromyalgia to chemical changes in the brain and blames a problem with dopamine..the brain's natural pain killer..for the symptoms. Click here for more:  http://www.fmscommunity.org/medstud.htm#37

Latest news from Dr. patrick Wood, MD.:   October 7, 2006:   PET scans and dopamine. Click here.

Research suggests that various components of the central nervous system are involved
Abstract, New York Academy of Sciences

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, although the mechanisms underlying the pain have not been fully elucidated. FM patients describe a number of nonspecific symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, and gastrointestinal complaints, which appear after a flu-like illness, or after physical or emotional trauma in half of the patients, and are often exacerbated by exertion, stress, lack of sleep, and weather changes.

There may also be symptoms of orthostatic intolerance, which suggests underlying abnormalities in cardiovascular neural regulation.

Research suggests that various components of the central nervous system are involved, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, pain-processing pathways, and the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

This review discusses the general aspects of the altered HPA and ANS, sympathetic overactivity, and alterations in cardiovascular autonomic responses to gravitational stimuli.

fMRI scans give first objective measure of mysterious ailment, 2002 ANN ARBOR, MI - A new brain-scan study confirms scientifically what fibromyalgia patients have been telling a skeptical medical community for years: They're really in pain. In fact, the study finds, people with fibromyalgia say they feel severe pain, and have measurable pain signals in their brains, from a gentle finger squeeze that barely feels unpleasant to people without the disease. The squeeze's force must be doubled to cause healthy people to feel the same level of pain - and their pain signals show up in different brain areas. Click here for more

Genetic aspects of fibromyalgia syndrome.

ABSTRACT:
Genetic and environmental factors may play a role in the etiopathology of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and other related syndromes. There is a high aggregation of FMS in families of FMS patients. The mode of inheritance is unknown but it is most probably polygenic.

There is evidence that polymorphisms of genes in the serotoninergic, dopaminergic and catecholaminergic systems play a role in the etiology of FMS. These polymorphisms are not specific for FMS and are associated with other functional somatic disorders and depression.

Future genetic studies in the field of FMS and related conditions should be conducted in larger cohorts of patients and ethnically matched control groups.

Arthritis Res Ther. 2006 Jul 28;8(5):218 [Epub ahead of print]
Buskila D, Sarzi-Puttini P.
Department of Medicine H, Soroka Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel.

Low Blood Pressure
A strong association between fibromyalgia and neurally mediated hypotension. Further studies needed to determine whether the autonomic response to upright stress plays a primary role in the pathophysiology of pain and other symptoms in fibromyalgia.
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June 2006 interview with top-ranked researcher Dr. Jon Russell
In the interview, The Essential Science Indicators 'Special Topics' correspondent Myrna Watanabe talks with Dr. I. Jon Russell about his highly cited fibromyalgia research. In our analysis of this field, Dr. Russell’s work ranks at #5, with 26 applicable papers cited a total of 610 times. Three of these papers are included on the lists of the most-cited papers in this field over the past decade and over the past two years.
Click here.           Click here for a 3 hour audio interview, May 2006.

Central pain
Recent evidence suggests that not only injuries commonly associated with central pain, such as strokes and spinal cord lesions, but also disorders such as fibromyalgia, phantom limb pain and tension-type headaches may involve central phenomena. Perhaps because of the lack of clinical trials, treatment is still largely based on traditional prescribing methods and anecdotal evidence.
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Neuropathic Pain Discovery, in Canada! December 2005
Click here for the NeuroScience Canada Press Release.  In the Press Release you will find a quote from current Canadian Ambassador to the USA, the Honourable Michael Wilson, regarding the immense cost to society.

Click here for comments and a picture by other researchers on the importance of this discovery, and more references on microglia.   This is not the first neuropathic pain dscovery in Canada, with strong research being conducted in many universities, including important glial research at Dalhousie. Visit the link to learn more.

Accelerated brain gray matter loss in fibromyalgia patients: premature aging of the brain?
Anil Kuchinad, Petra Schweinhardt, David A. Seminowcz, Patrick B. Wood, Boris A. Chizh, M. Catherine Bushnell
Fibromyalgia is an intractable widespread pain disorder that is most frequently diagnosed in women. It has traditionally been classified as either musculoskeletal disease or a psychological disorder. Accumulating evidence now suggests that fibromyalgia may be associated with CNS dysfunction. In this study, we investigate anatomical changes in the brain of 10 female fibromyalgia patients and 10 healthy controls. We found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly less total gray matter volume and showed a 3.3 times greater age-associated decease in gray matter than healthy controls. The longer the individuals had had fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging. In addition, fibromyalgia patients demonstrated significantly less gray matter density than healthy controls in several brain regions, including the cingulated, insular and medial frontal cortices, and parahippocampal gyri. The neuroanatomical changes that we see in fibromyalgia patients contribute additional evidence of CNS involvement in fibromyalgia. In particular, fibromyalgia appears to be associated with an acceleration of age-related changes in the very substance of the brain. Moreover, the regions in which we demonstrate objective changes may be functionally linked to core features of the disorder including affective disturbances and chronic widespread pain.

The Journal of Neuroscience 2007; 27(15): 4004-4007