Abstract
Objective
To investigate the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) associated
with functional exercise on pain, functional performance, psychological symptoms,
and quality of life of patients with fibromyalgia (FM).
Design
Randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomized by blocks into 2 groups:
tDCS associated with functional exercise (n=17) and sham-tDCS associated with functional
exercise (n=14).
Setting
Laboratory of neuromuscular performance in the department of physical therapy.
Participants
Women with FM (N=31) according to American College of Rheumatology-2010 criteria.
Interventions
Anodal tDCS or sham-tDCS was applied over the left motor cortex for 5 consecutive
days during the first week of intervention (2 mA; 20min). All volunteers also engaged
in 8 weeks of functional exercises 3 times per week.
Main Outcome Measures
Pain intensity, functional performance, psychological symptoms, and quality of life
were assessed pre-exercise and immediately after the first, fourth, and eighth weeks
of intervention.
Results
Pain intensity, functional performance, psychological symptoms, and quality of life
increased significantly in both groups (P<.05); however, no significant differences between groups were found in all outcomes
(P>.05).
Conclusion
tDCS associated with functional exercises did not enhance the effects of physical
exercise on pain, functional performance, psychological symptoms, and quality of life
of patients with FM.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
6MWT (6-minute walk test), ηp2 (partial eta squared), ANOVA (analysis of variance), DLPFC (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), FM (fibromyalgia), QOL (quality of life), PPT (pressure pain threshold), tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation), tdCS/E (tDCS associated with functional exercise), Sham/E (sham-tDCS associated with functional exercise), VAS (visual analog scale)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 01, 2021
Accepted:
June 9,
2021
Received in revised form:
June 6,
2021
Received:
May 4,
2021
Footnotes
Clinical Trial Regiser No. (ReBEC): 8pfq8c.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
