Swedish researchers have found that reducing the connectivity of certain areas of the brain may ease the pain experienced by patients with fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia has always been a problem for doctors. Indeed, they have never been able to determine the exact causes of this disease, nor to explain why women are more affected than men. However, a team of Swedish researchers found that reducing the connectivity of certain regions of the brain would help alleviate pain in patients. Their work is published in the journal Brain Connectivity.
Doctors at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm compared the brain activity of 22 women with fibromyalgia with that of 16 healthy women from Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI) The day before the experiment, the participants were asked to self-assess their pain levels.
A deviated trajectory
By studying the scans, the researchers found a difference in the trajectory of nerve messages sent to the brain between sick women and others. Indeed, MRI scans of women with fibryomalgia showed “a deviation in the trajectory of nerve signals, which makes these women more sensitive to pain”, explain the authors of the study. Dr Christopher Pawela, doctor at the University of Medicine of Wisconsin (United States) praises the work of his Swedish colleagues: “This is an important first step in understanding how the brain affects the perception of pain, which is the main symptom of fibromyalgia known today. “
Fibromyalgia is manifested by chronic chronic pain that is diffuse throughout the body, as well as severe fatigue and sleep disturbances. It affects around 2 to 5% of the population, mainly women. Recognized as an official disease by the WHO in 2006, fibromyalgia has been a subject of controversy in France because of the difficulties of diagnosis and management. Until 2010 when the HAS in turn recognized it as a disease.
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