There are a number of imaging techniques that allow researchers to literally observe how metabolically the brain reacts to different types of brain stimulation. For the most part are based on magnetic resonance imaging tests, but they exceed standard MRI that shows increase or decrease in cerebral metabolism (and therefore implicit hyper or hypo function). Since they are a test of brain function abbreviated images of functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. For simplicity, we can say that the increase in activity observed during these tests (known as activation of the brain region) is observed when a region of the brain "light" during the analysis. Otherwise known as brain deactivation can also be documented in the use of this technology. These tests become useful to unravel the complex processes of the disease such as fibromyalgia because they can show which areas of the brain "turn on" that disable and compare these brain responses in patients with fibromyalgia and healthy patients, Used as controls. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition, it makes sense that a number of researchers have analyzed the patents with fibromyalgia and uses a painful stimulus to see how the brain of fibromyalgia has responded to the pain. They did exactly the same tests in a group of patients without fibromyalgia so that they could compare brain responses in patients with fibromyalgia and those who did not have fibromyalgia. The results are interesting.

The fMRI revealed that patients with fibromyalgia had low activation in the right pre-motora cortex, putamen additional area of ​​the motor, cingulate medium, and after anxiety control, right and right insula lower frontal gyrus.

Wow, what does all this mean? Without going into a neuroanatomy and neurophysiology lesson, this study revealed defects in some of the areas of the brain in patients with fibromyalgia-pain treatment, but they are also in the anomalies in associated areas associated with muscle movements and Also possibly emotional treatment. These results represent an abnormal metabolism in the brain of patients with fibromyalgia that did not found in patients who were free of fibromyalgia. In particular, the authors of this study concluded that in fibromyalgia, parts of the brain that are designed to eliminate pain were defective.

iACHE is a platform solution for the coordination of care in pain management and addiction disorders. These two conditions require long term and coordinated care that currently does not exist.