Milnacipran Study Identifies Which Fibromyalgia Patients Benefit

• high pain levels
• low anxiety or catastrophizing
• no major sleep problems, absence of major sleeping problems
• physical limitations in the daily life effort

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26218005

Clin J Pain. 2015 Jul 24. [Epub ahead of print] Is Efficacy of Milnacipran in Fibromyalgia Predictable? A Data Mining Analysis of Baseline and Outcome Variables. Abtroun L1, Bunouf P, Gendreau RM, Vitton O.
OBJECTIVES:

The determination of the characteristics of patients who could benefit the most from Milnacipran is the primary objective of this manuscript.

RESULTS:

The clustering analysis reveals three symptom domains which are "Pain and global", "Mood and central status", and "Function". Particularly, we show that improvement on "Fatigue" goes with improvement on "Function". Next, the predictive data mining analysis exhibits four single baseline characteristics which are associated with substantially improved effect of Milnacipran on efficacy outcomes. These are high pain intensity, low anxiety or catastrophizing level, absence of major sleeping problems, and physical limitations in the daily life effort.
DISCUSSION:

Clustering and predictive data mining methods provide additional insight about fibromyalgia, its symptoms and treatment. Information is useful to physicians to optimize prescriptions in the daily practice and to regulatory bodies to refine indications.

Click to expand...