Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain and spinal cord process painful and nonpainful signals.
Anaïs Lacasse, a researcher at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue and co-director of the QPRN, her student Gwenaëlle De Clifford-Faugère and several other QPRN members, have conducted a study into the use of medication by people living with fibromyalgia. The study revealed that some of these people do not take the medication recommended for the condition. Conversely, some people are taking drugs that have not been shown to be effective for fibromyalgia. Taking medicines not recommended for fibromyalgia can have harmful consequences on health and could probably be explained by an insufficient effect of the recommended medicines. This lack of efficacy is probably linked to the fact that there is no precise diagnosis of fibromyalgia that would allow a specific approach to the treatment of the disease. According to Serge Marchand, a researcher at the University of Sherbrooke and QPRN member, it is also possible that there are several forms of fibromyalgia, each probably requiring a specific prescription.
