The Fibromyalgia Pain Experience: A Scoping Review of the Preclinical Evidence for Replication and Treatment of the Affective and Cognitive Pain Dimensions

Abstract

Fibromyalgia is a chronic, widespread pain disorder that is strongly represented across the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain, given that the underlying pathophysiology of the disorder is yet to be identified. These affective and cognitive deficits are crucial to understanding and treating the fibromyalgia pain experience as a whole but replicating this multidimensionality on a preclinical level is challenging. To understand the underlying mechanisms, animal models are used. In this scoping review, we evaluate the current primary animal models of fibromyalgia regarding their translational relevance within the affective and cognitive pain realms, as well as summarize treatments that have been identified preclinically for attenuating these deficits.

Keywords: affect; chronic pain; cognition; fibromyalgia; preclinical; sleep.

Figure 1

“Factors that contribute to the patterns of activity generated by the body-self neuromatrix, which comprises sensory, affective, and cognitive neuromodules. The output patterns from the neuromatrix produce the multiple dimensions of pain experience as well as concurrent homeostatic and behavioral responses”. © American Dental Education Association. Reproduced with permission from [5].