* Crossposted from: Fibromyalgia/Fibrositis Discussion Area
RESEARCHERS FIND PHYSICAL PROOF OF FIBRO PAIN
Friday, April 10, 1998
ABC News reported today on a study at the University of Alabama which found
decreased blood flow to areas of the brain which deal with pain and twice
the normal level of a brain chemical called Substance P in patients
diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  The study was presented on Wednesday by Dr.
Lawrence Bradley at a National Institutes of Health conference on pain and
gender.  Bradley theorized that the elevated level of Substance P, a brain
chemical which helps nervous system cells communicate with each other, may
be what causes the heightened levels of pain throughout the body that
fibromyalgia sufferers experience.
Bradley called Substance P "a burglar alarm which normally goes off in the
body in response to certain kinds of signals.  But in patients with
fibromyalgia, benign signals are making them go off as well."
Bradley, a pain management specialist who is also a psychiatrist, said that
8 percent of all women suffer from fibromyalgia, and that 90 percent of
fibromyalgia patients are women.  He also said that patients should not
believe that their mysterious pain symptoms mean that they are "crazy," and
that doctors should not attribute their fibromyalgia patients' pain to
psychological disorders.  "That perception is beginning to change now that
we can show distinctly different brain function that is not evident in
patients with depression," he said.
The ABC News article said that research into possible treatment for
fibromyalgia includes an investigation into the effect of antidepressants
on cerebral blood flow and injecting toxins into precise places in the
spine to block pain without the use of narcotics.
SOURCE:  ABC News
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