What are the causes of fibromyalgia?

Randy P. Martin, MD, explains that fibromyalgia currently has no single cause, but experts know that something is going on in the central nervous system that causes an individual to be very sensitive to pain.

Transcript

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If somebody hugs you or touches you, normally, we just feel pressure. But somebody with fibromyalgia, they feel intense pain.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Currently, there is no single cause for fibromyalgia, and no simple laboratory test that can be used to diagnose it.

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And that's why there's been a lot of frustration with patients and doctors in trying to make this diagnosis. For what's going on here, is really,

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if you think about your central nervous system-- sort of the central processing in your computer-- there's an amplified perception of pain.

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Think of it this way. If somebody hugs you or touches you, normally we just feel pressure. But somebody with fibromyalgia, they feel intense pain.

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And also, if you just prick your finger with a pin, to somebody with fibromyalgia, that really feels like excruciating stabbing pain.

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So it's sort of like the amplifier on your sound system is turned high up, so that any normal stimuli really

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comes down as severe pain. The causes are really unknown, although new research really shows that there's something going on in our brain,

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an area called the hippocampus, which is responsible for our pain perception, our memory, even our sleep area, where neurotransmitters--

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these things that sort of help us send nerve signals around-- are abnormal. And in fact, in research when they've

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looked in the spinal fluid of people with fibromyalgia, they found high levels of something called substance P, which may be related to pain perception.

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So there's something going on in our brain. It clearly has a genetic cause. In other words, it tends to run in family.

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And some people feel that high levels of stress may trigger it. That's why it's more common in people with post

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traumatic stress disorder. So fibromyalgia is really something going on in our central nervous system that

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makes the individuals super sensitive to normal stimuli, feel like pain, or even minor pain stimuli that

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seem excruciating. [AUDIO LOGO]