[Sensory sensitization, part I: Mechanisms behind fibromyalgia. "So my wife's pain system has become unnecessarily efficient"].

A pathophysiological mechanism named "nociceptive sensory sensitisation" is introduced to explain part of the fibromyalgia pain syndrome as well as several local or regional long standing pain conditions like epicondylitis, chronic low back pain, whiplash associated disorder, temporomandibular pain disorder and trochanteritis. The article is based on a vast rheumatological clinical experience on patients presenting with local or wide-spread pain, and on literature studies. Sensory sensitisation describes a changed quality in sensory nerve pathways with hyperexcitability and facilitated transmission of nerve impulses to the sensory cortex. Sensory sensitisation should be considered as a pathophysiological reaction originating from tissues and organs exposed to "external" overload or trauma, either physical, chemical or biochemical. The sensitisation process is usually facilitated by "internal" psychological distress.