A significant effect on depressive symptoms was not found .
The improvements for pain could be maintained at follow-up with smaller effects .
Introduction In the present systematic review and meta- analysis , we assessed the effectiveness of different forms of balneotherapy ( BT ) and hydrotherapy ( HT ) in the management of fibromyalgia syndrome ( FMS ) .
A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Mild Water-filtered Near Infrared Whole-body Hyperthermia as an Adjunct to a Standard Multimodal Rehabilitation in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia
Objectives To evaluate whether mild water-filtered near infrared whole-body hyperthermia ( NI-WBH ) produces an additional benefit when applied as an adjunct to a st and ard multimodal rehabilitation ( MR ) compared with MR only in patients with fibromyalgia ( FM ) . Methods One hundred thirty-nine patients of a German inpatient rehabilitation hospital meeting the ACR 1990 criteria for FM were r and omly allocated to NI-WBH ( heating-up to 38.1 degrees C body core temperature followed by a 15 min heat retention period ) and MR or MR only , twice a week over 3 weeks . Main outcome measures were affective and sensory pain assessed by a German version of the McGill Pain Question naire , measured at baseline , postintervention , 3 and 6 months postintervention and analyzed by intention to treat . Results Repeated measures analysis of covariance showed significant differences between groups for both primary outcome measures in favor of NI-WBH and MR compared with MR only ( P<0.001 for affective pain , P=0.001 for sensory pain ) . Secondary analyses on pain intensity , FM-related quality of life and tender point assessment yielded similar results . Moderate effect sizes were observed for all outcome measures considered ( range , 0.41 to 0.75 ) . NI-WBH  related side effects were observed in 14 of 69 participants ( 20 % ) but all disappeared in less than 30 minutes . Discussion The study indicates that NI-WBH is a worthwhile adjunct to MR in the treatment of FM
A significant effect on depressive symptoms was not found .
The improvements for pain could be maintained at follow-up with smaller effects .
Introduction In the present systematic review and meta- analysis , we assessed the effectiveness of different forms of balneotherapy ( BT ) and hydrotherapy ( HT ) in the management of fibromyalgia syndrome ( FMS ) .