Extreme Thermal Sensitivity and Pain-Induced Sensitization in a Fibromyalgia Patient

Abstract EN

During the course of a psychophysical study of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), one of the subjects with a long history of headache and facial pain displayed an extraordinarily severe thermal allodynia.

Her stimulus-response function for ratings of cutaneous heat pain revealed a sensitivity clearly beyond that of normal controls and most FMS subjects.

Specially designed psychophysical methods showed that heat sensitivity sometimes increased dramatically within a series of stimuli.

Prior exposure to moderate heat pain served as a trigger for allodynic ratings of series of normally neutral thermal stimulation.

These observations document a case of breakthrough pain sensitivity with implications for mechanisms of FMS pain.