Abnormal responses to electrocutaneous stimulation in fibromyalgia.

Abstract

As disturbed nociception may be relevant to the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia, nonnoxious electrocutaneous stimulation was used as a tool to investigate nociceptive status. Perception threshold and pain tolerance were studied in the upper limbs of 10 patients with fibromyalgia and 10 healthy volunteers. Perception threshold did not differ between the groups but the marked reduction in pain tolerance found in patients with fibromyalgia was accompanied by spread and persistence of dysesthesiae. The upper limbs of patients with fibromyalgia resembled regions of secondary hyperalgesia, which may imply that perturbation of central nociceptive mechanisms is involved in the pathogenesis of this syndrome.