People with fibromyalgia experience systemic muscular and skeletal pain, fatigue, and poor sleep. Fibromyalgia often coincides with other conditions including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, psychiatric disorders, and some autoimmune diseases. Although researchers suspect that fibromyalgia is strongly influenced by genetics, so far, scientists have not pinpointed responsible genes, complicating research into the disease and treatment options.
As a result of the unclear disease mechanism of fibromyalgia, Kevin Hackshaw, a rheumatologist at the University of Texas at Austin, said that some physicians don’t take the condition seriously. “I would say greater than 50 percent of patients that eventually come to us for treatment are really individuals who have experienced rejection from other physicians along the way, believing that fibromyalgia is not real, is made up…and is kind of a wastebasket term, and it is quote unquote ‘all in your head,’” he said.
Recently, a study led by an international team of researchers tackled the complexity of gene associations in fibromyalgia with a meta-analysis of several genome-wise association studies encompassing 2.5 million people. In a study published in Nature Medicine, the researchers presented 26 loci associated with fibromyalgia risk.1 The researchers also found strong associations with genes involved in nervous system function and pain processing.