Green eyeglasses could be an easy-to-use, non-drug option for patients with fibromyalgia and other types of chronic pain.
A study being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2022 annual meeting shows that wearing special green glasses for several hours a day reduces pain-related anxiety and may help reduce the need for opioids to treat severe pain in fibromyalgia patients and possibly in other people with chronic pain.
The findings of the study, as explained by the lead author Padma Gulur, “found that certain wavelengths of green light stimulate the pathways in the brain that help manage pain.”
“There is an urgent need for additional treatments to reduce the use of opioids among patients with fibromyalgia and other types of chronic pain, and green eyeglasses could provide an easy-to-use, non-drug option.”
There aren’t many non-drug alternatives to opioids for people with severe and long-term pain conditions like fibromyalgia, which causes pain all over the body.
According to the CDC, over 4 million people in the United States have fibromyalgia.
Anxiety and pain share comparable biological pathways. Dr. Gulur also said that fear of pain makes anxiety worse, which often leads to more opioid use.
The researchers looked at 34 fibromyalgia patients who were randomly assigned to wear different tints of eyeglasses for four hours a day for two weeks: 10 wore blue glasses, 12 wore clear glasses, and 12 used green glasses.
Patients using green glasses had a fourfold elevated risk of reduced anxiety compared to patients in the other groups.
“We found that although their pain scores remained the same, those who wore the green eyeglasses used fewer opioids, demonstrating that their pain was adequately controlled,” adds Dr. Gulur. “We would recommend the green eyeglasses treatment for those with fibromyalgia and are studying patients with other chronic pain conditions to determine if it would be beneficial.”
Dr. Gulur explained that the glasses are carefully designed to filter a certain wavelength on the green light spectrum.
Most of the patients who wore the green glasses said they felt better and requested to continue wearing them, according to the author.
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