TEL AVIV, Israel, July 14 (UPI) -- Exposure to high pressure oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber can ease or solve pain symptoms in fibromyalgia patients, based on the results of a new study.
Fibromyalgia, often triggered by head trauma, a neurological infection, or severe emotional stress, is characterized by symptoms such widespread pain and tenderness, fatigue, and sleep disturbance. The condition can be difficult to diagnose, and generally is treated with drugs to control pain.
"As a physician, the most important finding for me is that 70 percent of the patients could recover from their fibromyalgia symptoms," said Dr. Shai Efrati, a researcher at Tel Aviv University's Sagol School of Neuroscience, in a press release. "The most exciting finding for the world of research, however, is that we were able to map the malfunctioning brain regions responsible for the syndrome."
Researchers mapped brain activity for 60 women who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia at least two years before the study. Half of the 48 patients who completed the therapy received 90-minute treatments with pure oxygen, pumped into a hyperbaric chamber at twice the atmospheric pressure, five days a week for two months.
While all of the patients who completed treatment reported some level of their symptoms improving, researchers reported that the improvement was at different levels depending on what brought on fibromyalgia. When the condition was triggered by a brain injury, patients saw their symptoms stop after treatment in the chamber. For those whose fibromyalgia was brought on by other causes, however, patients required periodic follow-up therapy.
As a result of mapping patient's brains before, during and after the hyperbaric treatments, researchers also know what parts of the brain are responsible for fibromyalgia and could see the treatment changing brain chemistry.
"Hyperbaric oxygen treatments are designed to address the actual cause of fibromyalgia -- the brain pathology responsible for the syndrome," Efrati said. "It means that brain repair, including neuronal regeneration, is possible even for chronic, long-lasting pain syndromes, and we can and should aim for that in any future treatment development."
The study is published in PLOS ONE.
