I've just re-read the posts and would like to add:
[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Sources that I have read describe that the painful tissues show normal micro-
> anatomy, unlike MFPS. So is FM purely a psychological disorder?
>
Lack of a physical lesion does **not** automatically mean that the pain is of
psychological origin.
I think some muscle abnormalities have been found in FM (I can't remember the
exact reference but it's somewhere in Baillières Clinical Rheumatology 1994; vol
8, no 4. However as this ref is now 4 years old I'm prepared to accept that things
have changed maybe!)
It's also important to remember that pain is more than lesions. The axon reflex is
exaggerated in FM patients, indicating that the CNS is hypersensitive to stimuli -
there is a problem with processing the information even if "normal" information is
being inputted. There is also a link with neuroplasticity in that spinal synapses
increase in number in chronic pain states. Again, apologies that I can't remember
the exact refs but I would try a Medline search under Kidd BL. He edited a series
of articles on pain in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases starting in May 1996
and has also done some work on capsaicin.
I'll get off my soapbox now.....
Regards,
Carol David
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