AB1367-HPR EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HYPERBARIC TREATMENT ON THE PERCEIVED PAIN, FATIGUE AND FUNCTIONALITY OF WOMEN WITH FIBROMYALGIA
Authors: Ruth Izquierdo Alventosa, Marta Inglés, Sara Cortés Amador, Lucía Gimeno-Mallench, Àngels Vidal, Javier Chirivella, Juri D. Kropotov, Pilar Serra-Añó
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2019)

<h3>Background</h3> Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome accompanied by other symptoms such as fatigue or altered functionality<sup>1</sup>. One of the most common non-pharmacologic treatment is physical exercise because of its known positive influence on pain as a consequence of the physical condition improvement. <sup>2</sup> However, they use to present a lack of adherence to this type of therapeutic programs may be attributable to post-exercise pain <sup>3</sup>. For this reason, alternative approaches that do not involve physical efforts, such as hyperbaric therapy, may be effective to reduce pain, fatigue or functionality in women with FM.<sup>4</sup> <h3>Objectives</h3> To compare the effectiveness of hyperbaric therapy and physical exercise on pain, fatigue and functionality in women with FM. <h3>Methods</h3> A randomized control trial was conducted. 28 women with FM were divided in two intervention groups: One group, composed of 14 women, received a low-intensity physical exercise program twice a week for 8 weeks (PEG). The other group received 40 sessions of hyperbaric treatment, 5 times per week (HBTG). To determine the effect of these therapeutic programs, the perceived pain was assessed with an analogue visual scale. Further, the fatigue was measured with the Borg scale and the covered walked distance with The Six minutes walk test. The measurements were conducted two times, before and one week after finishing the treatment. The effect of the treatments was statistically analyzed with a mixed factorial ANOVA with the between-subject factor called group (categories: PEG and HBTG) and with the within-subject factor called intervention (categories: pre and post-intervention). <h3>Results</h3> Our study shows that hyperbaric treatment significantly improved functionality and reduced the levels of pain and fatigue (Table 1). The physical exercise intervention improved functionality, but this program could not reduce the experienced intensity of pain nor the perceived fatigue (p&gt;0.05). Data are shown as mean (SD). PEG: physical exercise group; HBTG: hyperbaric treatment group. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Both hyperbaric therapy and physical exercise achieved an improvement in the functionality. Nevertheless, only the hyperbaric therapy achieved a decrease in perceived pain and an improvement in the perceived fatigue. <h3>References</h3> [1] Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles M-A, Goldenberg DL, Katz RS, Mease P, et al. The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity. Arthritis Care Res. 2010;62(5):600610. [2] Ambrose KR, Golightly YM. Physical exercise as non-pharmacological treatment of chronic pain: why and when. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2015;29(1):120130. [3] Dobkin PL, Sita A, Sewitch MJ. Predictors of adherence to treatment in women with fibromyalgia. Clin J Pain. 2006;22(3):286294. [4] Wilson HD, Wilson JR, Fuchs PN. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment decreases inflammation and mechanical hypersensitivity in an animal model of inflammatory pain. Brain Res. 2006;1098(1):126128. <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None declared