Fibromyalgia is chronic medical condition characterized by chronic pain. The illness is still not fully understood and the source of pain is still unknown to the medical community. Patients suffering of fibromyalgia also have frequently sleep problems. Studies have shown that their deep sleep brain wave patterns are disrupted often by brain waves associated to wakefulness.
Previous studies have suggested that the irregular wave patterns found in patients with fibromyalgia may worsen and cause the pain. In a new study published recently, researchers designed a computational model to recreate the sleep patterns observed in patients with fibromyalgia in order to better understand how these abnormal patterns arose.
The research team focused their study on the molecular targets of sodium oxybate. The sodium oxybate is a drug reported to improve sleep in fibromyalgia patients. The scientists conducting the research have found that by altering the activity of three specific targets - leak currents, GABAB currents, and hyperpolarization-activated thalamic currents - it is possible to restored normal sleep patterns in their model.
The researchers have found that altering just the hyperpolarization-activated thalamic currents or just the potassium leak currents could also restore normal deep sleep wave patterns. According to their report, drugs acting on one of these targets in the thalamus might be enough to prevent disrupted sleep. The thalamus area is a region in the brain that regulates sleep.
According to the American Physiological Society, by restoring normal sleep patterns, the scientists found that the related adverse effects disappear, therefore this approach can provide relief to patients with fibromyalgia. The researchers explained that their model provides a much needed tool for explaining what makes fibromyalgia drugs efficient, since no animal models of fibromyalgia exist. Their study can also help finding more effective drugs, according to the researchers.
The team of scientists composed by Sujith Vijayan, Elizabeth B Klerman, Gail K Adler and Nancy Kopell published their study called "Thalamic mechanisms underlying alpha-delta sleep with implications for fibromyalgia" in the Journal of Neurophysiology .
