2000 Denise Van Patten – http://collectdolls.about.com
A research study conducted by McGill Centre for Research on Pain and published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that Fibromyalgia patients have “accelerated brain gray matter loss”.
The study found that Fibromyalgia may be associated with CNS dysfunction. In the study, researchers examined the brains of 10 healthy patients and 10 Fibromyalgia patients using MRI.
“We found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly less total gray matter volume and showed a 3.3 times greater age-associated decrease in gray matter than healthy controls. The longer the individuals had had fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging. In addition, fibromyalgia patients demonstrated significantly less gray matter density than healthy controls in several brain regions…”
The study went on to show that, “In particular, fibromyalgia appears to be associated with an acceleration of age-related changes in the very substance of the brain. Moreover, the regions in which we demonstrate objective changes may be functionally linked to core features of the disorder including affective disturbances and chronic widespread pain.”
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