High-dose thiamine improves the symptoms of fibromyalgia

Living with fibromyalgia means living with chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disorders and other associated key symptoms. To date, pharmacotherapy generally produces modest benefits. Some observations indicate that the large majority of symptoms of fibromyalgia could be the clinical manifestation of a mild thiamine deficiency due to a dysfunction of the active transport of thiamine from the blood to the mitochondria or to enzymatic abnormalities. Between June and July 2011, we recruited three female patients affected by fibromyalgia. We proceeded with the study of the patients' history, a physical examination, an evaluation of chronic widespread pain using the Visual Numeric Scale and an evaluation of the fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale were also performed. The levels of thiamine and thiamine pyrophosphate in the blood were determined. After the therapy with high doses of thiamine, in the patients, there was an appreciable improvement of the symptoms.