Treating One Painful Joint Decreases Overall Pain

To find out whether effectively treating pain in one joint would lead to an overall reduction in fibromyalgia pain, researchers from Italy, led by Maria Giamberadino, conducted a study to test their hypothesis.

In conducting the study, one group of participants was given a series of two to four injections in a painful trigger point. The second group of participants was given a therapy which included the use of a tiny electrical current to a painful joint that was first treated with two different anti-inflammatory preparations. The current was used to help the medications penetrate more deeply. The third group of fibromyalgia participants was given a placebo.

After 30 days, the effectiveness of the treatments given was compared, and results showed that those participants who received either the trigger point therapy or the topical anti-inflammatory treatment followed by electrical stimulation achieved a large decrease in symptoms of pain experienced in the treated joint. In addition, those participants who received either of these therapies also experienced an overall reduction of pain of up to 30%. Those who received a placebo did not experience any reduction in pain.

This study is important for several reasons. Firstly, the study shows that reducing pain in just one painful area can lead to overall reduced fibromyalgia pain. In addition, there are many people who do not experience relief of pain using any of the approved drugs for the treatment of fibromyalgia, so treatment of one painful joint may provide relief to these patients. Also, many patients could potentially cut down on their doses of pain medications were they to use the therapies outlined above in conjunction with their medication therapy. Lastly, many fibromyalgia patients suffer from joint pain similar to the joint pain experienced by people with arthritis, so treatment that targets arthritis patients’ most painful joint may be beneficial in reducing pain in arthritis patients who suffer pain in more than one area of their body. Therefore, this study shows great promise, as there are few effective treatments for fibromyalgia at the present time. In effect, this study may add some more weapons to the arsenal in the fight against fibromyalgia, and potentially arthritis as well.

The study was published in October in the European Journal of Pain.