Myrl Jeffcoat myrlj@jps.net
19 juin, 2005 16:22
FIBROMYALGIA
Thanks to Gina for sending the following article...Myrl
Health quickstudy -- FIBROMYALGIA
By LINDA SEARING
Special to The Washington Post
*THE QUESTION Besides feeling fatigue and having chronic muscle aches, people with fibromyalgia often are extra-sensitive to touch. For them, even minor contact, if repetitive, can mushroom into serious pain. Might a common cough suppressant, proven effective in blocking pain impulses in the spinal cord, help ward off this so-called wind-up pain?
*THIS STUDY compared pain sensitivity in 14 women with fibromyalgia, before and after they took dextromethorphan, an ingredient in many over-the-counter cough medicines, or a placebo. When heat or pressure was applied to their hands in repeated taps, which normally would induce wind-up pain, the women reported less pain after they had taken the drug. Higher doses were needed to reduce the pain induced by heat than by pressure.
*WHO MAY BE AFFECTED BY THESE FINDINGS? People with fibromyalgia, which affects as many as one in 50 Americans, 90 percent of them women.
*CAVEATS The study involved a small number of participants and was not randomized. Findings may not apply to men. The study did not include information on side effects.
*BOTTOM LINE Women with fibromyalgia may want to talk with a pain specialist about whether dextromethorphan might benefit them.
*FIND THIS STUDY May issue of the Journal of Pain; abstract available online at www.jpain.org.
*LEARN MORE ABOUT fibromyalgia at http://fmaware.org and www.fmpartnership.org.
