Rheumatology international
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Efficacy of a multidisciplinary treatment program in patients with severe fibromyalgia.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multidisciplinary treatment program in patients severely affected by fibromyalgia. Thirty-four fibromyalgia patients were randomly divided into two groups. The control group: 17 women who continued their medical treatment and participated in four educational sessions and the experimental group that included 17 patients who besides the former medical treatment also underwent a weekly 1-h session program for 8 weeks including massage therapy, ischemic pressure on the 18 tender points, aerobic exercise and thermal therapy. ⋯ At that time, considering the threshold for clinical efficacy set at an improvement of 30% or above for the analyzed variables, 25% of the patients met the requirement for improvement of the following: number of symptoms: Visual Analogic Scale for fatigue, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and Beck Anxiety Inventory. In conclusion, patients with severe manifestations of fibromyalgia can obtain improvement with a short-term, low-cost and simple-delivery multidisciplinary program. However, additional studies including higher numbers of patients are needed to confirm the beneficial effect of this treatment program.