(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A drug used to treat nerve pain or seizures may also be beneficial for patients with fibromyalgia, according to new research.

Fibromyalgia affects between 2 percent and 5 percent of the U.S. population -- most commonly women. It's often misunderstood, but symptoms include widespread chronic muscle pain and tenderness, fatigue, sleep disturbances and memory problems. There is no FDA-approved treatment for fibromyalgia to date.

Investigators from the University of Kentucky in Lexington conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of the drug, pregabalin (Lyrica). The study included 1,051 participants with fibromyalgia. The patients were given one of three doses of the drug for six weeks. At the beginning of the trial, the average pain score of the participants was 78 on a 100-point scale.

Study authors found more than 60 percent of the participants reported a more than 50-percent reduction in pain. Researchers enrolled more than 500 of these patients into a second 26-week study, which was designed to determine how long the medication would relieve pain. Half received pregabalin, and the other half received a sham medication.

Study authors conclude pregabalin has a significant benefit for longer-term pain relief in patients with fibromyalgia. Researchers report the participants who did not take the medication noticed their pain had worsened by day seven compared to day 34 for those on the medication. By the end of the second study, researchers found 60 percent of the patients on placebo had their pain return compared to only 32 percent of those on pregabalin.

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SOURCE: American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting, Washington D.C., November 8-15, 2006