A large international study concludes that fibromyalgia is a disorder of the nervous system, giving the pain a biological explanation. Up to 100,000 Danes live with the condition.
Researchers behind the project say the findings provide, in their words, a solid biological basis for a condition that has long been debated. DR reported the results on August 7, 2026, along with an interview broadcast on the radio program P1 Morgen.
The Danish part of the study was led by Thomas Folkmann Hansen, professor of Translational Neurogenetics and Multiomics at DTU Health Technology and Rigshospitalet. According to DR, 5,000 Danes took part in the project. The underlying study has been published in the journal Nature.
Hansen called the result relatively groundbreaking, according to DR. He said it addresses the lack of knowledge that people with fibromyalgia have often been met with. He described the group as patients who have been passed between different medical specialties, with the illness classified in different ways over the years, from a psychiatric condition to a muscle pain disorder.
26 genomic regions identified
The research team analyzed genetic data from more than 2.5 million adults across seven countries. As reported by DR, the analysis identified 26 areas of the genome that affect the risk of developing fibromyalgia. Hansen said the 26 genes explain up to about 10 percent of the cause of the illness.
That means genetics cannot account for the full disease mechanism. Per Hansen, even people who carry many of the risk variants probably develop fibromyalgia only when other factors are added. He gave a painful joint disease or other triggering events as examples, in comments to Berlingske.
Berlingske covered the same research in a parallel article, framing the findings as proof that patients who have been met with distrust and skepticism have a real illness. The outlet also carried Hansen’s explanation of the role of additional triggers alongside the genetic risk variants.
For patients, Hansen said the main value is understanding. According to his comments to DR, the results help both in how people with fibromyalgia are met by others, and in knowing that the condition has a biological cause. He said it is better to know where the illness comes from than to know nothing about it.
The new knowledge cannot be used to treat the condition at present. Hansen told DR that it is impossible to say whether treatment is one, five, or ten years away. He added that the timeline is at least shorter than it would have been without the findings. Denmark has seen other research aimed at chronic pain patients in recent years.
Fibromyalgia has for years caused strong pain in up to 100,000 Danes without doctors being able to identify specific causes, DR noted. The study marks a step toward classifying the condition within the nervous system rather than among muscle or psychiatric disorders.
