Research Update
Women with Fibromyalgia
Have a Real Pathology
Among Nerve Endings to
Blood Vessels in the Skin.
A rational biological source of pain in the skin
of patients with fibromyalgia
by Frank L. Rice, PhD
As anyone who has fibromyalgia knows, the widespread deep pain and fatigue can be very debilitating. But even
worse can be the uncertainty about the disease itself. The diagnosis can be difficult and subject to doubt because
not much shows up in clinical tests. Often the diagnosis comes down to ruling out everything else. There are indications that the source of pain and fatigue is due to hypersensitivity of nerve cells within the central nervous
system (called central sensitization), but why this may be occurring is unknown. Otherwise, no specific pathology
has been identified that could be the source of the problem, which in itself can fuel self doubts. Distressingly, even
when fibromyalgia has clearly been diagnosed, none of the FDA approved therapeutics provides predictable or
sustained relief, if they provide any relief at all, and even then the side effects of drowsiness, depression and the
like can be worse than the disease.
A Real Pathology Discovered in the Skin
S
cientists at Integrated Tissue Dynamics LLC
(Intidyn) and Albany Medical College (AMC)
have made a major discover y that should provide
a more certain diagnosis of fibromyalgia, significant insight into the source and symptoms of the
disease, and new strategies for its prevention
and treatment. The discover y has been published
in the June issue of the journal Pain Medicine
(the journal of the American Academy of Pain
Medicine) where it was featured on the cover and
accompanied by a laudator y editorial by Robert
Ger win, MD of Pain & Rehabilitation Medicine in
Bethesda and part time with the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine.
T
he research team was headed by neurologists
Charles Argoff, MD, and James Wymer, MD
PhD of AMC and James Storey, MD, of Upstate
Clinical Research Associates, who did the clinical
assessments, and by neuroscientists Phillip Albrecht, PhD, Quanzhi Hou, MD PhD, and Frank Rice,
PhD, of AMC and Intidyn who analyzed the nerve
endings in the skin. To analyze the nerve endings,
the analytical team used their unique expertise
and microscopic technology to examine small skin
biopsies collected from the palms of fibromyalgia
patients, who were being diagnosed and treated by
Drs. Argoff, Wymer