In recent years, antioxidant supplements have become popular to counteract the effects of oxidative stress in fibromyalgia and one of its most distressing symptoms, pain. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the effects of antioxidant supplementation on pain levels perceived by patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The words used respected the medical search terms related to our objective including antioxidants, fibromyalgia, pain, and supplementation. Seventeen relevant articles were identified within Medline (PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), the Cochrane Database of Systematic Review, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. This review found that antioxidant supplementation is efficient in reducing pain in nine of the studies reviewed. Studies with a duration of supplementation of at least 6 weeks showed a benefit on pain perception in 80% of the patients included in these studies. The benefits shown by vitamins and coenzyme Q10 are remarkable. Further research is needed to identify the effects of other types of antioxidants, such as extra virgin olive oil and turmeric. More homogeneous interventions in terms of antioxidant doses administered and duration would allow the effects on pain to be addressed more comprehensively.
The aim of this review was to demonstrate the presence of categories and subcategories of Mishel’s model in the experiences of patients with fibromyalgia by reviewing qualitative studies. Uncertainty is defined as the inability to determine the meaning of disease-related events. A scoping review of qualitative studies was carried out. Twenty articles were included, with sample sizes ranging from 3 to 58 patients. Articles from different countries and continents were included. Three categories of the model and eight subcategories could be shown to be present in the experiences of fibromyalgia patients through the scoping review. The first category, concerning antecedents of uncertainty in patients with fibromyalgia, is constituted by the difficulty in coping with symptoms, uncertainty about the diagnosis and uncertainty about the complexity of the treatment. The second concerns the cognitive process of anxiety, stress, emotional disorder and social stigma. The third category refers to coping with the disease, through the management of social and family support and the relationship with health care professionals.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.