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Interdisciplinary treatment prolonged improvements for patients with fibromyalgia
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An interdisciplinary treatment program for patients with fibromyalgia improved their quality of life, pain, physical function, anxiety and depression, and pain-coping strategies for up to 1 year after intervention, according to study results.
In a randomized control trial, researchers in Spain evaluated 180 outpatients with fibromyalgia recruited from a hospital pain management unit. Ninety patients were randomly assigned to a control group and received standard pharmacologic therapy. The other 90 patients were assigned to an experimental group and received the same pharmacologic treatment plus six weeks of interdisciplinary treatments combining psychological, medical, educational and physiotherapeutic components (PSYMEPHY). The twice-weekly group sessions of 105 minutes were delivered by a team including a physician, a clinical psychologist and a physiotherapist experienced in chronic pain management.
Changes in quality of life were the main outcome measure. Pain, physical function, anxiety, depression, use of pain-coping strategies and satisfaction with treatment were secondary outcomes. Measurement tools included the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Coping with Chronic Pain Questionnaire.
One hundred ten evaluable patients (mean age, 50.15 years; 90.9% women) completed the study 6 months after intervention. The experimental group (n=54) experienced significant improvements in quality of life (P=.04), physical function (P=.01) and pain (P=.03) compared with controls (n=56). Experimental group patients also reported greater treatment satisfaction
Twelve months after intervention, patients in the experimental group (n=58), including four who returned to the study, maintained improvements in quality of life, physical function, pain and anxiety and depression symptoms compared with baseline (P<.05 for all). Changes to active copies strategies, however, were not statistically maintained, and there was a decrease in the use of passive coping strategies.
“Our results suggest it could be especially valuable to offer this interdisciplinary treatment in hospital pain management units,” the researchers concluded. “Fibromyalgia is a frustrating condition for patients to have and for physicians to treat. Our finding that the PSYMEPHY treatment is effective and provides long-lasting improvements offers an incentive to develop and study similar treatment programs.”
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