Is pain in Parkinson's disease due to a fibromyalgia-like process?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is pain in Parkinson's disease due to a fibromyalgia-like process?
IRAS ID
169704
Contact name
Monty Silverdale
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Fibromyalgia is a condition causing chronic widespread pain and tender spots. The American College of Rheumatology Research Criteria for the Classification of fibromyalgia (ACR-RCC) were developed in 1990. The criteria necessitate 11 or more of 18 anatomically defined tender spots. Thus with the correct training it is possible for anyone to accurately diagnose fibromyalgia by following the ACR-RCC criteria.
Pain is very common in Parkinson’s disease affecting around 70% of patients. Many patients with Parkinson’s disease have chronic widespread pain unrelated to their mobility problems. In this regard, pain in Parkinson’s disease is similar to pain in fibromyalgia. Furthermore many of the chemical changes which have been shown to occur in Parkinson’s disease also occur in fibromyalgia. This has lead us to speculate that pain in Parkinson’s disease may be generated via similar mechanisms to the generation of pain in fibromyalgia.
There have been several well controlled clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness of various medications to treat pain in fibromyalgia. These medications include gabapentin, pregabalin, amitryptilline and duloxetine. On the contrary, there have been very few clinical studies documenting effective pain killing treatments in Parkinson’s disease.
Thus if we can prove that pain in Parkinson’s disease is caused by very similar mechanisms to pain in fibromyalgia then we will understand a great deal more about the pathophysiology of pain in Parkinson’s disease. We will also be in a strong position to investigate novel treatment strategies for pain in Parkinson’s disease based on the fact that these strategies have shown to be effective in fibromyalgia.
The aim of this study is to use the ACR-RCC criteria and validated questionnaires to assess for the presence or absence of fibromyalgia in Parkinson’s disease compared to a control population.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
15/WS/0044
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion