As I was exploring research and news today I ran across the Science Daily website and saw their report dated April 7, 2008 covering the University of Iowa study that reveals a biological link between pain and fatigue and may help explain why more women than men are diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

I want to include an excerpt from that report.  If you want to read the entire report, please go to www.sciencedaily.com and use their search engine with the term “biological link between pain and fatigue discovered.”

Chronic pain and fatigue often occur together—as many as three in four people with chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain report having fatigue; and as many as 94 percent of people with chronic fatigue syndromes report muscle pain. Women make up the majority of patients with these conditions.

The study, which was published in the Feb. 28 [2008] issue of the American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, indicates that muscle pain and fatigue are not independent conditions and may share a common pathway that is disrupted in chronic muscle pain conditions. The team plans to continue their studies and investigate whether pain enhances fatigue more in females than males.

“Our long-term goal is to come up with better treatments for chronic musculoskeletal pain,” Sluka said. “But the fatigue that is typically associated with chronic, widespread pain is also a big clinical problem — it leaves people unable to work or engage in social activities. If we could find a way to reduce fatigue, we could really improve quality of life for these patients.”

There is starting to be more research that there are gender differences when it comes to chronic pain and people’s perception of pain.  On our website www.addiction-free.com on our Research Archive you can find a report titled Gender and Pain.