Future of Fibromyalgia

December 17, 2003

SEATTLE (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Fibromyalgia is a condition characterized

by extreme pain and muscle stiffness. It strikes 5 million to 10 million

Americans. Fibromyalgia is often treated with anti-depressants, but

newer, more targeted therapies may soon be available.

For more than 20 years, Tross-Deamer suffered the pain of

fibromyalgia. She started taking a new medication -- pregabalin -- and

her pain subsided. “The memory is better. My relationships are better, "

she says. " People like me a lot more. " For the first time in years, this

wine author can sleep at night, giving her back energy and stamina

during the day.

Bernadine took a different drug -- milnacipran -- and had similar

results. She says: “I didn’t have as much depression. I wasn’t as fatigued.”

Rheumatologist Philip J. Mease, M.D., is testing both drugs in separate

studies. “At least a third of the patients in both trials have

experienced, roughly, a 50-percent reduction in pain,” he says. The

drugs come from different families -- pregabalin is a pain reliever,

milnacipran an anti-depressant.

Dr. Mease, of Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle, says, “What

both of these medications are doing are restoring to a more natural

balance the neuro-chemicals in the brain that are off kilter in this

condition.”

Both drugs are still in trials, but for these two women, the verdict is

already in.

The most common side effects in the pregabalin trial were mild

dizziness, which went away as drug use continued. For milnacipran, it

was nausea. Pregabalin could be approved next year. Milnacipran will

likely be approved in two years.

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