Two new treatment ideas for Fibromyalgia

Neurofeedback in fibromyalgia syndrome.

Agri. 2007 Jul;19(3):47-53.

Kayýran S, Dursun E, Ermutlu N, Dursun N, Karamürsel S.

Kocaeli University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation, Kocaeli, Turkey.

PMID: 18095199


EEG Biofeedback (Neurofeedback-NFB) is a learning strategy that
enables people to alter their brainwaves. In the present case study,
we applied a NFB protocol on three patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS).

The existing symptoms and clinical conditions of the patients
attributed to FMS, Visual Analog Scale for pain and fatigue, Hamilton
Depression and Anxiety Inventory Scales, Beck Depression and Anxiety
Inventory Scales, and SF-36 were recorded before and after NFB training.

Most of the symptoms were decreased after ten sessions. There was
also improvement in all of the scales after the treatment.

The results of the present study may suggest NFB training as a novel
treatment method in FMS.

[Pharmacological treatment of fibromyalgia.]
[Article in Italian]

Reumatismo. 2007;59(4):280-291.

Cazzola M, Sarzi-Puttini P, Buskila D, Atzeni F.

U.O. Reumatologia, Azienda Ospedaliera "L. Sacco", 20157 Milano,
Italia. atzenifabiola@hotmail.com.

PMID: 18157284


Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a condition of chronic and diffuse
muscular pain affecting particularly middle aged women. The aetiology
of FM is not completely understood and it is currently considered a
disorder of pain regulation.

The most efficacious compounds include the tricyclic drugs and mixed
reuptake inhibitors. Recent works suggest that the anticonvulsant
medications pregabalin and gabapentin are also effective. Moreover,
two serotonin and norepinephrine-reuptake inhibitors-duloxetine and
milnacipran show encouraging results in treating FM symptoms.

The results of clinical trials of anti-inflammatory medications have
been generally disappointing, but three RCTs have found that tramadol
(with or without acetaminophen) is effective in FM.

* * *

Tramadol is the first thing that worked on my pain.

Anti-inflammatories should be expected to have disappointing results, because fibromyalgia is not an inflammatory disease.

Tags: fibromyalgia, treatment, tramadol, biofeedback, NSAIDs, anti-inflammatories