Generalized Hypersensitivity in Patients With Fibromyalgia Syndrome

March 18, 2025 updated by: University of Florida
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder with unknown causes. Our previous studies showed abnormal sensations of second pain (wind-up), indicating central hypersensitivity as an important mechanism of FM. Triggering events have been implicated as the cause of central hypersensitivity.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Increasing evidence has shown that the hypersensitivity of FM is not limited to painful stimuli but seems to extend to non-painful stimuli as well. These stimuli include smell, taste, touch, light, and sound. This study will provide detailed QST examinations of FM subjects and controls' responses to light using visually evoked potentials (VEP). In addition, careful characterization of experimental pain responding across multiple sensory modalities will be examined.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Florida
      • Gainesville, Florida, United States, 32610
        • University of Florida

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Individuals diagnosed with FM will have pain of > 3 months and meet the 1990 and 2011 Diagnostic Criteria for FM (ACR)
  • Healthy, pain-free age and sex matched controls without chronic pain

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Presence of chronic disease (e.g. cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, etc.).
  • FM patients must be willing to discontinue or hold their FM related medications for a minimum of one day prior to the visit.
  • Significant vision loss not corrected by eye wear
  • Family history of photosensitive epilepsy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Effects of PASAT on Sensory Testing
After baseline evaluation of light and pain sensitivity FM subjects and controls will undergo the PASAT task. This task consists of responding to a rapid presentation of numbers by ear phones. Subjects are asked to add each 2 consecutive numbers and provide a response each time the sum is equal to 13. This test will last several minutes and delivered at increasing speed.
Behavioral: Paced Auditory Serial Addition task (PASAT)
Single and double digits are presented at intervals between 2 and 3 seconds and the participant must add each new digit to the one immediately prior to it. The participants will be asked to indicate by electronic button press whether the sum of the addition is 13 or not. The duration of the PASAT will be two 12-min tasks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Verbal Pain Ratings of Painful Heat and Pressure Stimuli using a Numerical Pain Scale from 0 - 100
Time Frame: 1 hour
FM and control subjects will provide verbal ratings of experimental pain stimuli. For this purpose a numerical ratings scale (0-100) will be used ranging from "no sensation" to the "most intense sensation possible". All measures will be obtained in triplicates and the averages will be used for statistical comparisons.
1 hour
Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) During Flicker
Time Frame: 1 hour
FM and control subject will focus on a light source while VEPs are obtained. EEG tracings will be evaluated by special software to detect VEP. For intensity ratings of the flicker stimulus a numerical ratings scale (0-100) will be used ranging from "no sensation" to the "most intense sensation possible". All measures will be obtained in triplicates and the averages will be used for statistical comparisons.
1 hour

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Response to 2011 Fibromyalgia Criteria Questionnaire
Time Frame: 0.5 hours
FM and control subjects will complete the 2011 FM Questionnaire. The answers of this questionnaire will be added to obtain the wide-spread pain index and the somatic symptom score. The scores will be combined to obtain the final score. Scores of >12 fulfill the Criteria for Fibromyalgia
0.5 hours
Response to the Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES-D) Depression Questionnaire
Time Frame: 0.5 hours
FM and control subjects will complete the CES-D. The answers of this questionnaire will be combined to obtain a final score. Total scores of >15 are consistent with the diagnosis of major depression.
0.5 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Florida

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Roland Staud, MD, University of Florida

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 28, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 11, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

December 11, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 19, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 2, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

June 4, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB202000992

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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