The Association between Body and Mind of Fibromyalgia and the Understanding of the Pathological Mechanism for the Holistic Approach

Abstract

Although fibromyalgia is not well known on the pathology, recent researches have proved that patients with fibromyalgia have unique psychological characteristics, abnormalities in immunology, brain function, and autonomic nervous system function from multimodal aspects. Here we present that fibromyalgia patients have displayed abnormal pacing, passive self-image induced by background and over-adaptation and hyperactivity, and abnormal resting state brain connectivity to enable readers to understand the psychosomatic relationship and holistic approach for the disease. The default mode network (DMN) showed greater connectivity to the insula cortex and secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) in fibromyalgia patients. The DMN change as a centralized pain and the abnormalities in musculoskeletal system and autonomic nervous system as peripheral pains constitute complicated psychosomatic pathologies. It is desirable that holistic approach in normalizing the pacing and increasing in accessibility among consciousness, preconsciousness and unconsciousness should be developed in the clinical psychosomatic practice for fibromyalgia patients.