Abstract
Although the pain of fibromyalgia usually is not preceded by an injury to the involved
tissue, whereas that of the complex regional pain syndrome usually starts at a site
of prior trauma or surgery, both disorders may share a common mechanism—pathologic
sensitization of brain mechanisms that integrate nociceptive signals—and both apparently
respond to treatment with ketamine, an anesthetic-analgesic agent whose actions include
blockade of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors. Ketamine's widespread illegal use as a recreational agent probably
precludes developing it as a general treatment of centrally mediated pain disorders;
however, its efficacy suggests that related, to-be-discovered agents could be useful.
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Article info
Footnotes
Publication of this article was supported by the Collège International de Recherche Servier (CIRS).
STATEMENT OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The author has nothing to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
