According to a new brain scan study, fibromyalgia may be related to a dysfunction of cerebral pain-processing.

Pain researchers in Marseilles, France, used single photon emission computed tomography, also called SPECT, in an attempt to detect functional abnormalities in certain regions of the brains of patients with fibromyalgia. This technology allows precise measurements of blood flows in different regions of the brain and offers an image of electrical activity.  

There is no known cause or accepted cure for fibromyalgia, a painful syndrome in which the patients describe chronic and severe pain in muscles, ligaments and tendons. Pain in the neck and shoulders is common but sufferers also report problems with sleep, anxiety and depression.

More of 90 percent of fibromalgya sufferers are women. Fibromalgya has been called the “invisible syndrome” because it can’t be diagnosed based on a lab test or X-ray.

The researchers looked at 20 women diagnosed with fibromalgya and 10 healthy women. Participants were given brain scans and they answered questions to asses measures of pain, disability, anxiety and depression. In women with fibromalgya, researchers found an increase in blood flow in the parts of the brain responsible for sensing pain and a decrease in an area involved in emotional responses to pain.

The results confirmed that patients with fibromalgya have “a real disease/disorder” and suggest this disorder “may be related to a global dysfunction of the cerebral pain-processing.”

The research found no relationship between these abnormalities in cerebral blood flow and presence of depression or anxiety.