Researchers say pain from fibromyalgia is real

Not that it’s news to those of us who have it, but it’s good to be validated!

Fibromyalgia often has been misdiagnosed as arthritis or even a psychological issue. Increasingly, though, the scientific knowledge about fibromyalgia is growing, and a new paper from the University of Michigan Health System says there are “overwhelming data” that the condition is real, is characterized by a lower pain threshold and is associated with genetic factors that can make some people more likely to develop fibromyalgia. …

“It is time for us to move past the rhetoric about whether these conditions are real, and take these patients seriously as we endeavor to learn more about the causes and most effective treatments for these disorders,” says Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., research investigator in the Division of Rheumatology at the U-M Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine and a researcher at the U-M Health System’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center.

The name of one of the authors of the paper, Dr. Daniel J. Clauw, will be familiar to many of you from other studies on fibromyalgia. He says that, “In people without pain, these structures encode pain sensations normally. In people with fibromyalgia, the neural activity increased. These studies indicate that fibromyalgia patients have abnormalities within their central brain structures.”

ScienceDaily: Pain From Fibromyalgia Is Real, Researchers Say

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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11 thoughts on “Researchers say pain from fibromyalgia is real

  1. Sure, it’s nice when our pain is validated by someone “in the know”; but now we need to get our “everyday” doctors to understand this too. The doctors who have such a heavy case load, that they don’t have time to learn anything new, and probably don’t care because they are too tired. Sadly, these are probably the majority available for most of us right now. I think it’s going to be several more years, when they are actually teaching this in physicians school as part of their regular course, before we start seeing more “everyday” doctors with this knowledge and understanding.

  2. We all know it is real pain. We are real people. It is sad, when something which affects so many people need to be “validated” by people do not have it to be taken seriously. Otherwise, it is all psychological. Sigh…

  3. Algia in ancient Greek means pain. People with fibromyalgia are aware of the pain and don’t need an expensive research to tell them this fact. So, spend money wisely trying to relief that “algia”.

  4. A lot of anti “algia” drugs are toxic for human body. A plants based drug will be effective and it will induce less damage.

  5. Disorders should be treated with the newest methods available and considerable amounts of money should be given in order for these methods to be improved.

  6. They’re not simply misinterpreting Fibromyalgia with rheumatoid related syndromes; they even usually prescribe the same medication for both diseases. But we have to admit the pain relief medication used for arthritis works for Fibromyalgia as well.

  7. Famir, I have to disagree with you.

    I don’t know any fibromites who find much real relief from the medications that help with osteoarthritis – for instance, anti-inflammatory drugs cannot, by definition, touch the pain of fibromyalgia, because there is no inflammation involved. Celebrex and similar medications don’t help, either – I’ve tried quite a few, and my experience (no relief) has been verified by a great many other fibromyalgia patients. I have never heard of any doctor prescribing Humira, Enbrel, Methotrexate, or even Sulfasalazine, which are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, as a fibromyalgia treatment. The diseases are very different.

    I have FMS, migraines, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid disorders. I can distinguish between the different types of pain fairly well. To be honest, ibuprofen has always given me better results in controlling my OA than any other medication. It doesn’t do anything for the other conditions, though. FWIW, the narcotic pain relievers I take don’t work as well if I skip the ibuprofen, because I do need its anti-inflammatory effect at all times.

  8. We have to take care with this medicines. They are very dangerous we will became addicted and we will have other problems. There are many peoples that need a drug rehabilitation because of marijuana and other drugs we don’t have to be in there place.

  9. We have to take care with every medicine, Andrea, whether it’s for, prescribed or not.

    You said in another comment that you had to go into a narcotics rehabilitation program in the past, so I can understand your caution. Research has shown, though, over and over again, that chronic and severe pain patients seldom get addicted to pain medications unless there is a previous history of abuse or other factors to consider. Those people are screened out by every legitimate pain management specialist I’ve ever heard of, so their main issue is getting any pain relief when they do have a problem due to their prior history.

    I hope that you don’t ever need pain management treatment. I’ve encountered people in that situation and it’s heartbreaking.

  10. Imagine the complications you can achieve by a bad prescription. These things are not to be messed with.

  11. Softer1313, I’m afraid that there’s nothing inherently “safer” about plant-based medications. Remember, opiates come from poppies!

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