Surian, Amber A, Baraniuk, James N · Scientific reports · 2020 · DOI
This study measured how sensitive to pain women with ME/CFS, Gulf War Illness, and fibromyalgia are compared to healthy controls. Researchers used a tool called a dolorimeter to apply pressure to 18 specific body points and measured how much pressure it took before women felt pain. Women with these illnesses felt pain at much lower pressure levels than healthy women, showing they have widespread increased pain sensitivity.
This study provides objective physical evidence of widespread pain sensitivity in ME/CFS and related illnesses, which could help establish dolorimetry as a measurable diagnostic tool rather than relying solely on patient-reported symptoms. Understanding that ME/CFS patients have variable levels of pain sensitivity may lead to better diagnostic criteria and inform development of targeted treatments for different subgroups.
This study does not establish causation—it only demonstrates that pain sensitivity differs between groups at one point in time. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether hyperalgesia develops before or after illness onset, nor can it explain the underlying biological mechanisms causing heightened pain sensitivity. Additionally, the lack of correlation between dolorimetry and symptoms in CFS and FM suggests that pain threshold measurements alone may not capture the full pain experience in these conditions.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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