Health Conditions

What is on the horizon?

Researchers are working to determine exactly how individuals with fibromyalgia (FM) perceive pain. One of the problems believed to be associated with FM is a difference in the way FM patients interpret and process pain signals. This difference may lead to increased pain sensitivity. Understanding this difference will help researchers create new medicines and ways to treat FM.

The relationship between fibromyalgia and family history is also being studied. Research is being performed to determine if a gene or genes predispose a person to fibromyalgia. Researchers are also investigating whether fibromyalgia is more common in patients with other existing conditions or characteristics. This will help us to understand fibromyalgia better and point to other risk factors for FM.

Fibromyalgia patients often have erratic and irregular sleep patterns. A current trial is researching the efficacy of EEG biofeedback (brain electricity) on the reduction of FM symptoms.

Research is also being done on kainic acid (this acid is similar to an amino acid agonist). A single injection of this to the vagus nerve (one of the nerves in the brain that supplies nerve fibers to the organs of the chest and the abdomen) was found to enhance long-term pain sensitivity. The researchers can't say how closely the syndrome they have created in the lab rats mimics FM, but comparing what is happening in their model to what is happening in FM should give them important information about both. The eventual goal is to use the model not only to better understand chronic pain in patients with FM, but also to develop new treatments for FM.

Growth hormone therapy, though very expensive for most patients, was shown in one study to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life without significant side effects. As persons with FM may not make enough growth hormone when they exercise, pyridostigmine (Mestinon) is currently being studied to determine if the medication can stimulate production of growth hormone. It is thought that increasing growth hormone to a normal level may improve the symptoms of FM.