Current pain and headache reports
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Dec 2006
ReviewAt the crossroads between tension-type headache and fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia syndrome and tension-type headache have multiple clinical features in common, and pathogenic mechanisms partly overlap. Significant differences need to be recognized as well. Studying the correlations of these often comorbid conditions represents a unique opportunity to gain insight into their pathophysiology and that of other chronic pain syndromes, to increase the accuracy of their diagnosis, and to improve the therapeutic armamentarium.
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Fibromyalgia is a common idiopathic pain condition often resulting in increased morbidity and disability in patients. The lack of peripheral abnormalities in this disease has led clinicians and researchers alike to question if this syndrome represents a valid entity. ⋯ In addition, neurobiological studies indicate that fibromyalgia patients have abnormalities within central brain structures that normally encode pain sensations in healthy pain-free controls. Future studies that focus on central neurobiological and/or genetic influences in fibromyalgia may bring insight into mechanisms of this problematic disease and ultimately result in improved treatments.