According to a recent Israeli study, a dedicated hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) protocol was more effective in reducing pain than available drugs in patients suffering from fibromyalgia following head injury.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) affects about 4 million U.S. adults, about 2 percent of the adult population. It’s clinically characterized by widespread chronic pain, dyscognition (fibro fog), and associated symptoms.

“Existing treatments are not good enough,” one of the leading researchers, Dr. Jacob Ablin from the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, said in a statement. “It is a chronic disease that significantly affects the quality of life, including young people, and hyperbaric medicine meets an acute need of these patients.”

Fifty-eight individuals, divided into either the pharmacological intervention group or the HBOT group, completed their protocols. All participants were 18 years and older and had suffered from FMS for more than a year because of a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Each group included 29 patients with no statistically significant differences in baseline characteristics or symptoms.

The HBOT protocol included breathing 100 percent pure oxygen by mask in a chamber, at a pressure of two atmospheres, for 90 minutes with five-minute breaks of breathing regular air every 20 minutes. The participants had sessions five days a week for three months, for a total of 60 treatments.

The pharmacological intervention the treating physician chose included one of the two medications approved in Israel for FMS: pregabalin (brand name Lyrica) and duloxetine (brand name Cymbalta).

“Evaluation was performed at baseline for both groups and 1–3 weeks after the last HBOT session or three months of medications protocol.” The evaluators didn’t know to which group the participants were allocated.

The researchers also assessed pressure pain threshold and brain activity imaging.

HBOT significantly improved all FMS pain measures, quality of life, emotional health, and social functions.

In addition, after HBOT, 11 (37.9 percent) participants no longer met FMS diagnostic criteria, which didn’t happen to any patient in the medication group.

Furthermore, pain threshold tests improved on average 12 times in the HBOT group compared to the medication group, according to a press statement.

In addition to the pain measures, HBOT patients reported significant improvement in quality of life, emotional health, and social function. The researchers noted that clinical changes were correlated with increased brain activity in the frontal and parietal regions. They said in the study that this “provides additional information regarding the etiology and treatment of FMS.”

“The drugs work on pain. ... If they do something, they can ease some pain,” Dr. Shai Efrati, one of the lead authors and the director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center, told The Epoch Times.

But the dedicated treatment protocol in the pressure chamber with the fluctuation in oxygen levels “triggers the stem cells in the brain to start dividing,” he said, adding that it “triggers the healing process in the brain—like healing a wound.”

Once you heal the wound, the pain goes away. It’s a different approach, which treats “the wound instead of giving you treatment for the pain,” he said.

Today, it’s understood that this is a real biological problem in the areas of the brain responsible for interpreting the signals coming from the body, he said.

“It’s like when you are in a room and an alarm goes off. ... The alarm is real, but there is no fire,” he said.

Today, researchers understand that the damage is in specific areas of the brain and they can see the structure and assess the function of those areas.

The study—in which the trigger for FMS was a head injury—is part of a larger series of studies focused on HBOT treatment for FMS. The head injury could result from “a concussion, a shake, a car accident, [or] some sort of a blast wave,” Efrati said.

Severe mental stress can also be the trigger. He said it could cause a brain injury that is no less severe than a physical injury and could even be harsher.

In recent years, specific HBOT protocols have led to the growth of new blood vessels and neurons in the brain.

Certain fluctuations in pressure and oxygen can trigger stem cells in the brain to start dividing. “We can trigger the creation of new blood vessels in the brain,” Efrati said.

“We started with classic injuries like stroke, like a head injury, and then expanded the canvas to other diseases like [FMS],” he said.

Efrati emphasized that HBOT is not yet an approved treatment for FMS. HBOT protocols can be obtained only in medically approved centers, and a qualified doctor needs to examine the patient and determine if he or she is suitable for the treatment.

One of the limitations of the study identified by the authors was the need for data on the long-term effects of HBOT treatment.

The authors also indicated that further research is needed to optimize the specific HBOT protocol for patients.

Among the HBOT group in the FMS study, 18 participants (48.6 percent) experienced side effects. Most were mild and resolved after a few days off of the treatment. Among those in the pharmacological treatment group, the most common side effects were dizziness, drowsiness/weakness, nausea, and increased pain.