Key Brain Abnormalities In Fibromyalgia Uncovered By Lyrica Research A Revolutionary Drug Lyrica is a revolutionary drug that the FDA approved for seizures, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Lyrica has earned about $550 million for Pfizer in the last quarter. The drug’s success can be attributed to the tremendous need for drugs that relieve neuropathic pain. It took fifteen years to develop and was originally established to reduce seizures by increasing GABA levels, but was later found to reduce glutamate, substance P, and norepinephrine levels instead. The pharmacological effects of Lyrica are known to scientists and researchers, but the parts of the brain it affects are still unknown. It is essential to find out why and where drugs work in order to bring understanding on the etiology of disease processes. This type of reverse engineering is currently being done on rituximab and antivirals. Fibromyalgia and healthy controls were pressed on their thumbnails to induce pain in this study. The parts of the brains that were activated before and after taking Lyrica were determined using fMRIs. Reduced brain activation in concert with reduced pain should reveal which parts of a fibromyalgia patient’s brain were producing the pain.
Results It was not shocking to see almost 50% more brain regions light in the fibromyalgia patients due to profound pain sensations, than in the healthy controls pre-Lyrica. The study revealed that Lyrica is effective, but only in less than half of those who tried it. It reportedly reduced pain in half, dropped their pain sensitivity down to normal levels, and their sleep and fatigue scores improved significantly. Changes in the brains of respondents were noticed Post-Lyrica. The same number of brain regions in healthy controls became activated during pain. The affected neighboring brain regions had been stopped and reversed by the drug. Reductions in insula, somatosensory cortex, and thalamus activity suggested these regions in particular, play an important role in pain in fibromyalgia.
Integration in the Insula One of the most interesting organs in the brain, the insula plays an important role in both physiology and emotion. One of the chief homeostatic organs in the brain, the insula is in charge of adjusting the body’s physiology to maintain an even, healthy state. It helps regulate the amount of pain you experience. It lights up in the presence of fear. It is associated with awareness and cognitive issues. It is involved in determining anticipation. Lyrica’s ability to reduce activity in two areas of the insula and the cingulate cortex suggested that the motivational affective component of pain is increased in Fibromyalgia. Deep Brain Arousal and Sensory Integration
The reduced level of thalamus and somatosensory cortex activity post-Lyrica proposed that the aberrant pain signaling process in Fibromyalgia may begin deep in the brain. The thalamus, which sits right on top of the brainstem, relays sensory and motor signals from the spinal cord to the rest of the brain and regulates sleep and alertness. Believed as a switchboard, it is now clear that the thalamus processes and determines the flow of information to the rest of the brain. An overactive thalamus could conceivably reflect breakdowns earlier in the sensory routing system that caused massive amounts of sensory information to smack the thalamus. The thalamus’s regulation of arousal and alertness also suggests it could contribute to the wired and tired issues in Fibromyalgia. Lyrica’s ability to reduce pain and fatigue and improve sleep and reduce fatigue suggests pain and arousal may be two sides of the same coin in Fibromyalgia, something that certainly makes subjective sense. This study and others suggest insula, thalamus, and somatosensory cortex over-activation is wreaking havoc with the pain levels, arousal, and possibly emotions in fibromyalgia. Please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter