Depression
As we mentioned above, sometimes antidepressants are used to treat fibromyalgia. This is sometimes helpful since many individuals with fibromyalgia are also clinically depressed. In fact, individuals with fibromyalgia are almost three times more likely to be depressed when diagnosed with the disease. It is possible that living with the disease and experiencing the associated symptoms lead to depression. However, it is also possible that those with fibromyalgia develop depression due to other factors such as a change in the chemical makeup of the brain. These abnormalities in brain chemistry could possibly cause the brain to release certain chemicals that lead a person to be more sensitive to pain. Other possible factors include the sympathetic nervous system (which is the body’s system that determines how we respond to emergencies and how we deal with stress). Some experts and researchers in the field believe that the brain in people with fibromyalgia releases different brain chemicals that result in an increase in pain sensitivity. Therefore, often the end result is an individual with both a high sensitivity to pain and depression, which is, of course, not an ideal situation.
