Cognitive Training to Enhance Brain Concordance During Acupuncture

Eligibility Criteria

• * Meet traditional American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for FM as well as the more recent Wolfe et al 2011 criteria
• * Are on stable doses of medication for 30 days prior to entering the study and agree not to change medications or dosages during the trial
• * Ability to fully understand and consent to study procedures
• * Baseline pain intensity of at least 4/10
• * Pain duration of at least 6 months
• * Any longer period of work experience involving pain treatment, pain rehabilitation etc.
• * Presence of any illness that is judged to interfere with the trial. For example: psychiatric disorder according to the DSM-IV manual
• * Presence of any contraindications to fMRI scanning. For example: cardiac pacemaker, metal implants, fear of closed spaces, pregnancy.
• * History of significant head injury
• * Inability to respond accurately to the pain-relieving intervention in the behavioral part of the experiment, indicating a lack of response to the expectancy manipulation. If the healthy volunteer or clinician is not a responder to the behavioral expectancy induction he or she will be excluded.
• * Unwillingness to receive brief experimental pain.
• * Leg pain or health issues that may interfere with the study procedures.
• * Comorbid acute pain condition
• * Comorbid chronic pain condition that is rated by the subject as more painful than fibromyalgia
• * Current use of opioid analgesics
• * Concurrent inflammatory or autoimmune disease
• * Documented peripheral neuropathy
• * Pregnant
• * Any psychiatric disorder involving a history of psychosis (e. g schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe personality disorders)
• * History of anxiety disorders or significant anxiety symptoms interfering with fMRI procedures (e.g., panic)
• * Psychiatric hospitalization in the past 6 months
• * Unwillingness to withhold from consuming marijuana 12 hours prior to scans
• * Unwillingness to withhold from consuming nicotine 4 hours prior to scans
• * Any impairment, activity or situation that in the judgment of the Study Coordinator or Principal Investigator would prevent satisfactory completion of the study protocol.
• * Is an actual clinical patient of the clinician subject
• * Recent history of formal meditation-based training