Autonomic Nervous System Involvement in FM: Not so Uncommon After All

Suffering from weird heart palpitations, dizziness, low blood-pressure, and almost passing out when you stand up? You're not alone. These are definite issues for me, making it very hard to function when they flare up, and according to Current Rheumatology Reports, December 2008, I'm not alone. Actually, this might address the problems I've been having with feeling like I'm having to remind myself to breathe, too! (It mentions below that the ANS controls respiration as well...)

Autonomic dysfunction in fibromyalgia syndrome: Postural orthostatic tachycardia - Source: Current Rheumatology Reports, Dec 2008
by Roland Staud, MD, FACP, FACR
November 16, 2008

Although fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome is defined by chronic widespread pain and tenderness, additional symptoms, including disabling fatigue and dizziness, are often reported by patients with this chronic illness.

Although nonrestorative sleep may play an important role for chronic fatigue in FM, other mechanisms, including dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), need to be considered.

Many important biological functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, respirations, and bowel function, are tightly regulated by the ANS.

However, dysfunction of the ANS is common in FM and often becomes quite apparent after positional changes from supine to upright.

Although such positional changes sometimes result in syncope, they are more often associated with palpitations and dizziness.

Head-up tilt table testing can be used to evaluate autonomic dysfunction, and is frequently helpful for the work-up of FM complaints, including fatigue, dizziness, and palpitations.

One of the most common events experienced by FM patients during tilt table testing is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which is defined as a heart rate increase of more than 30 beats per minute after more than 3 minutes of standing upright.

Source: Current Rheumatology Reports, Dec 2008;10(6):463-466. PMID: 19007537, by Staud R. Department of Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA. [E-mail: staudr@ufl.edu]