Tailored cognitive-behavioural therapy and exercise training improves the physical fitness of patients with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with fibromyalgia have diminished levels of physical fitness, which may lead to functional disability and exacerbating complaints. Multidisciplinary treatment comprising cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and exercise training has been shown to be effective in improving physical fitness. However, due to the high drop-out rates and large variability in patients' functioning, it was proposed that a tailored treatment approach might yield more promising treatment outcomes. METHODS: High-risk fibromyalgia patients were randomly assigned to a waiting list control group (WLC) or a treatment condition (TC), with the treatment consisting of 16 twice-weekly sessions of CBT and exercise training tailored to the patient's cognitive-behavioural pattern. Physical fitness was assessed with two physical tests before and 3 months after treatment and at corresponding intervals in the WLC. Treatment effects were evaluated using linear mixed models. RESULTS: The level of physical fitness had improved significantly in the TC compared with the WLC. Attrition rates were low, effect sizes large and reliable change indices indicated a clinically relevant improvement among the TC. CONCLUSIONS: A tailored multidisciplinary treatment approach for fibromyalgia consisting of CBT and exercise training is well tolerated, yields clinically relevant changes, and appears a promising approach to improve patients' physical fitness. ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT00268606.

Cognitive-behavioral mechanisms in a pain-avoidance and a pain-persistence treatment for high-risk fibromyalgia patients.

OBJECTIVE: The heterogeneity of cognitive-behavioral patterns in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) has been proposed to underlie the variability in treatment outcomes. It has previously been shown that pain-avoidance and pain-persistence treatments tailored to the patient's pattern are effective in improving physical and psychological functioning and overall impact in high-risk patients with heightened psychological distress. In the present study, the cognitive-behavioral effects of these treatments were evaluated to provide insight into the main proposed mechanisms, specifically pain-avoidance behaviors and activity pacing in the pain-avoidance and pain-persistence treatments, respectively. METHODS: High-risk FM patients were classified into 2 groups, pain avoidance and pain persistence, and randomized in groups to the relevant treatment or waiting-list control condition. The pain-avoidance and pain-persistence treatments both comprised 16 twice-weekly sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy and exercise training. Cognitive--behavioral factors assessed at pre- and posttreatment and 6 months of followup were evaluated using linear mixed models. RESULTS: A significant treatment effect was found for pain-avoidance behavior in the pain-avoidance treatment and for activity pacing in the pain-persistence treatment, showing improvements in the treatment condition relative to the controls. Furthermore, the effect on functioning was mediated by changes in pain-avoidance behavior in the pain-avoidance treatment and by changes in activity pacing in the pain-persistence treatment. Both treatments also showed significant improvements in other relevant cognitive-behavioral factors. CONCLUSION: Both the pain-avoidance and pain-persistence treatments are effective in improving cognitive-behavioral factors in high-risk FM patients. Pain-avoidance behavior and activity pacing might be important mediating mechanisms for beneficial outcomes in pain-avoidance and pain-persistence treatments, respectively.

Screening for pain-persistence and pain-avoidance patterns in fibromyalgia.

BACKGROUND: The heterogeneity of patients regarding pain-related cognitive-behavioral mechanisms, such as pain-avoidance and pain-persistence patterns, has been proposed to underlie varying treatment outcomes in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). PURPOSE: To investigate the validity of a screening instrument to discriminate between pain-persistence and pain-avoidance patterns in FM. METHOD: In a three-part study, a self-reported screening instrument that assesses pain-avoidance behavior was used to distinguish patients with pain-persistence and pain-avoidance patterns. The resultant groups were compared with regard to several pain-related cognitive-behavioral factors, performance on a physical fitness test, and with regard to the judgments of trained therapists based on a semi-structured interview. RESULTS: The validity of the screening instrument to distinguish between pain-avoidance and pain-persistence patterns was supported by other validated self-report questionnaires for pain-related cognitive-behavioral factors, physical exercise tests, as well as by a high correspondence with blinded therapist judgment after intake assessments. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that a short self-report screening instrument can be used to distinguish between pain-avoidance and pain-persistence patterns within the heterogeneous population of FM patients, which offers promising possibilities to improve treatment efficacy by tailoring treatment to specific patient patterns.

Tailored cognitive-behavioral therapy for fibromyalgia: two case studies.

OBJECTIVE: To illustrate a multidisciplinary group treatment for patients with fibromyalgia (FM) tailored to the patient's cognitive-behavioral pattern. METHOD: In a case-study design the tailored treatment approaches of two FM patients were described. One patient characterized by avoidance behavior (pain-avoidance pattern) participated in a group treatment aimed at changing pain-avoidance mechanisms and one patient characterized by continuing with activities in spite of pain (pain-persistence pattern) participated in a group treatment aimed at changing pain-persistence mechanisms. Assessments were made at baseline, post-treatment and at 6-months follow-up. RESULTS: Comparison of the pretest, post-test and follow-up scores on pain, functional disability, fatigue and psychological distress showed clinically significant improvements for both patients. CONCLUSION: The heterogeneity of patients regarding pain-related cognitive-behavioral mechanisms has been proposed to underlie varying treatment outcomes in FM patients. These results demonstrate that a group treatment tailored to pain-avoidance and pain-persistence patterns is feasible and can result in clinically significant changes for FM patients. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: FM offers a great challenge for clinicians due to the lack of effective treatment options. These case studies suggests that tailored CBT and exercise training directed at specific patient patterns can contribute to the improvement of the care of FM patients.