Figure 5.

(A) Scatterplot showing the variability in conditioned pain modulation (CPM) in people with fibromyalgia and healthy controls, represented as the percent change in pressure thresholds before and after the CPM test. In a comparison of people with fibromyalgia and healthy controls, although there was an overall decrease, on average there were clearly people with fibromyalgia who presented with normal CPM and healthy controls who presented with reduced CPM. (B) Analysis of data from an ongoing fibromyalgia activity study with transcutaneous electrical stimulation (n = 172) revealed the variability in psychological measures in people with fibromyalgia⁸²; 26% had high scores on the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (> 30/52), and 51% had high scores on the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (> 37/68).