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FM and the Central Nervous System

Fibromyalgia can Cause Greater Sensitivity to Sounds and Pressure

Jun 8, 2008

New evidence shows that fibromyalgia (FM) may be associated with central nervous system abnormalities such as elevated sensitivity to sounds and pressure sensations.

Sufferers of fibromyalgia know that continuous or frequent pain and tenderness throughout the body are common symptoms. Now American researchers at the University of Michigan have published a study showing that fibromyalgia is associated with central nervous system abnormalities as evidenced by patients’ elevated sensitivity to auditory and pressure sensations.

Medical sociologist, nurse, university professor, researcher and long-time sufferer from fibromyalgia, Dr Barbara Keddy has already hypothesised that fibromyalgia is caused by a hyper-aroused nervous system in ultra-sensitive people.

She discusses her research and reasons for this hypothesis in her book, Women and Fibromyalgia: Living with an Invisible Dis-ease

A Global Central Nervous System Problem?

The researchers from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Department of Psychiatry and the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, all at the University of Michigan, together with a colleague from Sv Kiril i Metodij, Skopje, Macedonia, hypothesised that there could be a global central nervous system problem underlying sensory processing in people with fibromyalgia.

While previous research had already shown that fibromyalgia sufferers were extra sensistive to sounds and pressure, the researchers noted that few studies had employed different stimuli in consistent ways and levels of intensity to measure pain sensitivities in fibromyalgia patients.

So they subjected 31 patients to a range of tests involving exposure to random auditory and pressure stimuli. A similar number of people not suffering from fibromyalgia underwent the same tests as a control group.

Both sets of subjects were also asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their sensitivity to everyday noises.

Sensitivity to Sounds and Pressure

The fibromyalgia subjects in the study showed greater sensitivity to auditory tones and reported higher sensitivity to daily sounds.

Although they were actually hearing softer tones than the ‘normal’ subjects, the fibromyalgia patients perceived them to of be the same intensity as the sounds heard by the other group.

“Participants with FM displayed significantly greater sensitivity to all levels of auditory stimulation. The magnitude of difference between FM patients' lowered auditory sensitivity (relative to control subjects) was similar to that seen with pressure, and pressure and auditory ratings were significantly correlated in both control subjects and subjects with FM," the researchers say in their paper, A Psychophysical Study of Auditory and Pressure Sensitivity in Patients With Fibromyalgia and Healthy Controls, published in the May 2008 edition of The Journal of Pain.

"FM patients also were more sensitive to everyday sounds. Further, significant associations were observed between the auditory and pressure responses and support the claim that such abnormalities may be related to a common pathophysiological mechanism,” they said.

They also said further research would be needed to examine mechanisms governing these perceptual abnormalities.

The copyright of the article FM and the Central Nervous System in Women’s Health is owned by Sue Cartledge. Permission to republish FM and the Central Nervous System in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.