Balneotherapy in fibromyalgia: a single blind randomized controlled clinical study

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of balneotherapy in fibromyalgia management. Fifty women with fibromyalgia under pharmacological treatment were randomly assigned to either the balneotherapy (25) or the control (25) group. Four patients from the balneotherapy group and one patient from the control group left the study after randomization. The patients in the balneotherapy group (21) had 2 thermomineral water baths daily for 2 weeks in Tuzla Spa Center. The patients in the control group (24) continued to have their medical treatment and routine daily life. An investigator who was blinded to the study arms assessed the patients. All patients were assessed four times; at the beginning of the study, at the end of the 2nd week, the 1st month, and the 3rd month after balneotherapy. Outcome measures of the study were pain intensity, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), patient's global assessment, investigator's global assessment, SF-36 scores, and tender point count. Balneotherapy was found to be superior at the end of the cure period in terms of pain intensity, FIQ, Beck Depression Inventory, patient's global assessment, investigator's global assessment scores, and tender point count as compared to the control group. The superiority of balneotherapy lasted up to the end of the 3rd month, except for the Beck Depression Inventory score and the investigator's global assessment score. Significant improvements were observed in PF, GH, and MH subscales of SF-36 during the study period in the balneotherapy group; however, no such improvement was observed in the control group. Balneotherapy was superior only in VT subscale at the end of therapy and at the end of the third month after the therapy as compared to the controls. It was concluded that balneotherapy provides beneficial effects in patients with fibromyalgia.

Therapeutic benefit of balneotherapy and hydrotherapy in the management of fibromyalgia syndrome: a qualitative systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Over 96% of the participants were women. Sixteen studies involved women only [56,57,62-71,73,75-77], and eight studies included both women and men [58-61,72,74,78,79]. The median of the mean pain baseline values reported in 20 studies was 7.1 (5.5 to 9.1).…”

“…Two RCTs originated from Canada [59,60], eight from Turkey [57,58,69,71,72,75,77,78], two from Brazil [56,68], one from Israel (Dead sea) [70], two from Italy [73,74], one from Austria [61], three from Spain [62,66,67], one from Norway [63], two from Sweden [64,65], one from Germany [76] and one from The Netherlands [79]. …”

“…Eighteen studies were conducted in outpatient settings [56,58-69,72-74,76,78] and six in inpatient settings [57,70,71,75,77,79]. Seven studies were conducted within spa resorts either with in-patients or outpatients [69-71,73,74,77,79].…”

“…Seven studies were conducted within spa resorts either with in-patients or outpatients [69-71,73,74,77,79]. Patients were referred from primary, secondary and tertiary care settings.…”

Thermalisme et douleur chronique en rhumatologie : revue des essais cliniques randomisés (ECR) et des méta-analyses

“…L'insu du patient n'est possible que pour l'évaluation de l'effet lié aux propriétés chimiques de l'eau ou de la boue thermale en comparant eau thermale versus eau du robinet ou boue thermale versus boue non thermale ou hotpack [2, 10,14,24,25]. Dans les autres cas, l'absence d'insu du patient représente un biais qu'il est, comme pour toute évaluation d'une intervention non médicamenteuse, impossible à contourner.…”