Fibromyalgia affects nervous system

PEORIA, Ill., June 26 (UPI) -- A U.S. expert on fibromyalgia has unified the literature on the condition and suggests it and several other disorders have much in common.

Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Muhammad B. Yunus, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria, and colleagues published the first controlled study of the clinical characteristics of fibromyalgia syndrome that led to formal recognition of the disease by the medical community.

Now, Yunus reviewed more than 225 publications on fibromyalgia and related diseases and he describes 13 separate conditions that are related to central sensitization, where the central nervous system -- spinal cord and brain -- becomes extremely sensitized on certain parts of the body, so that even mild pressure or touch can cause much pain, poor sleep and fatigue.

Central sensitivity syndromes are the most common diseases that are based on real neurochemical pathology and cause real pain and suffering, according to the study published in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.

"In some patients stress and depression may contribute to the symptoms, but they are all based on objective changes in the central nervous system," Yunus said in a statement.