NIH Project Studies Treatments for Fibromyalgia

NIH PROJECT TO STUDY NONDRUG TREATMENTS FOR FIBROMYALGIA

COLUMBUS -- Some 6 million Americans suffer chronic pain 
resulting from fibromyalgia, a rheumatic disease with no known 
cause or cure.  Conventional treatments have shown limited 
success, leaving many people unable to function efficiently at 
home or work.

But a new National Institutes of Health study led by 
researchers in Ohio and North Carolina could lead to treatments 
that not only decrease pain, but improve physical and 
psychological functioning as well through exercise and training 
in pain coping skills, said Francis Keefe, professor of health 
psychology at Ohio University and principal investigator on the 
project. 

Called Project Uplift -- or Understanding Pain and Lifestyle 
Improvements in response to Fibromyalgia Treatments -- the effort 
is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team of health 
psychologists, rheumatologists and exercise physiologists at Ohio 
University, Ohio State University and Duke University Medical 
Center.