Fibromyalgia and Sensitivity

Filed in archive Cancer, General on May 16, 2007

How low is your pain threshold? New research from New York University's medical school reveals that, if you suffer from fibromyalgia, your pain threshold may be lower than people who don't have fibromyalgia. According to an article from Web MD:

The review shows that compared to people without fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia patients tend to process pain differently and to be particularly sensitive to pain.

That heightened sensitivity to pain likely stems from pain-processing problems in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), according to the review.

Skeptics ask if the pain that fibromyalgia sufferers complain of is even real, or is it all in the head? Science Daily has this reply:

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.

Graphics from Web MD