Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined
with exercising in people with fibromyalgia.
Design
Randomized, triple-blind, sham-controlled, clinical trial.
Setting
Primary health care center.
Participants
A total of 120 volunteer participants (N=120) between 18 and 65 years old and diagnosed
with fibromyalgia. Four participants dropped out of the study for causes unrelated
to the intervention.
Intervention
Participants were randomized into 3 groups (active tDCS+exercising, sham tDCS+exercising,
no-intervention control). The intervention was delivered in 5 sessions over 2 weeks.
Main Outcome Measures
Pain intensity and referred pain area after suprathreshold pressure stimulation.
Results
Pain intensity further decreased in the active tDCS group vs control (mean, −14.43;
95% confidence interval, −25.27 to −3.58) at post intervention, unlike the sham tDCS
group. Both tDCS groups did not achieve greater reductions in referred pain vs control.
In the active tDCS group, health status (mean, −14.80; 95% confidence interval, −23.10
to −6.50) and pain catastrophizing (mean, −6.68, 95% confidence interval, −11.62 to
−1.73) improved at post intervention, and so did health status (mean, −8.81; 95% confidence
interval, −17.11 to −0.51), pain catastrophizing (mean, −7.00; 95% confidence interval,
−12.13 to −1.87), and depression (mean, −3.52; 95% confidence interval, −6.86 to −0.19)
after 1 month. In the sham tDCS group, improvements were recorded in health status
(mean, −13.21; 95% confidence interval, −21.52 to −4.91) and depression (mean, −3.35;
95% confidence interval, −6.35 to −0.35) at post intervention and in health status
(mean, −8.77; 95% confidence interval, −17.06 to −0.47), pain catastrophizing (mean,
−5.68; 95% confidence interval, −10.80 to −0.55), and depression (mean, −3.98; 95%
confidence interval, −7.31 to −0.64) after 1 month. No intergroup differences were
observed between active and sham tDCS.
Conclusions
Active and sham tDCS improved health status, pain catastrophizing, and depression
vs control, but pain intensity decreased only in the active tDCS group.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
FM (fibromyalgia), MDD (minimal detectable difference), tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation), 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: March 21, 2022
Accepted:
February 14,
2022
Received in revised form:
February 11,
2022
Received:
December 21,
2021
Footnotes
Clinical Trial Registration No.: NCT04050254.
Disclosures: none
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
