Health Diseases And Medications

Fibromyalgia is a condition that has long baffled the medical profession. Sufferers complain of chronic muscle pain and fatigue. However researchers at University of Michigan Health System have found a link between the pain and a specific brain molecule.
Researchers found that as the levels of the glutamate molecule went down the pain experienced by the fibromyalgic patients reduced. The authors of the article, which appears in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, say that this study could help in the research for new drugs to treat this debilitating condition.
Lead author Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the U-M Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine and a researcher at the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center said: “If these findings are replicated, investigators performing clinical treatment trials in fibromyalgia could potentially use glutamate as a ’surrogate’ marker of disease response.”

Previous studies had indicated that glutamate might have a role to play in fibromyalgia. MRI scans had shown that parts of the brain were more active in fibromyalgia patients, this activity was thought to be due to the high levels of glutamate in those regions.

The researchers monitored the levels of glutamate over a 4 week course of acupuncture treatment. Over these 4 weeks the levels of pain experienced by the patients had significantly reduced. Correspondingly, the levels of glutamate in the areas of the brain thought to be associated with fibromyalgia also reduced. The patients with the greater reduction in glutamate also experienced the greatest reduction in pain.

Reference: Arthritis and Rheumatism, March 2008, Volume 58, Issue 3, “Dynamic Levels of Glutamate within the Insula are Associated with Improvements in Multiple Pain Domains in Fibromyalgia.”