SYSTEMATIC REVIEW   Free access

European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2022 February;58(1):76-84

DOI: 10.23736/S1973-9087.21.06432-7

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatments for patients with fibromyalgia: a systematic review

Anna-Núria LLÀDSER ^{1, 2}, Pilar MONTESÓ-CURTO ² ✉, Carlos LÓPEZ ^{2, 3}, Lluís ROSSELLÓ ⁴, Sydney LEAR ⁵, Loren TOUSSAINT ⁵, Lina C. CASADÓ-MARTÍN ⁶

¹ Unit of Internal Medicine, Verge de la Cinta Hospital, Catalan Health Institute (ICS), Tortosa, Spain; ² Department of Nursing, Rovira i Virgili University, Tortosa, Spain; ³ Department of Pathology, Verge de la Cinta Hospital, Catalan Health Institute (ICS), The Pere Virgili Institute for Health Research (IISPV), Tortosa, Spain; ⁴ Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital of Santa Maria, Lleida, Spain; ⁵ Department of Psychology, Luther College, Decorah, IA, USA; ⁶ Department of Nursing, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain

INTRODUCTION: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a pathology that causes physical, psychological, and social problems. For this reason, it requires treatment that involves all of these elements. The main of study is to examine multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment (MRT) in fibromyalgia and to identify healthcare approaches developing effective MRT tools for the treatment of FM.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: In this systematic review, we searched the following databases: CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, Cuidatge, Cuiden, ENFISPO, IBEC and IME.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Of 356 articles found we selected 13 to analyze and summarize. We created 4 different categories: 1) multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment focusing on health education and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); 2) multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment that includes dietetics; 3) multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment adapted to the patients’ characteristics; 4) multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment based on physical exercise.
CONCLUSIONS: This review identifies the most effective treatments that may be usefully applied in many different rehabilitation contexts. These include all treatments that incorporated an education (ED) program to patients and an exercise program complete with aerobic exercise (AE), stretching (SE), relaxation (RE), strengthening (TE), endurance (EN), and which includes the entire body and biofeedback. Furthermore, many approaches also include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for self-management such as occupational therapy, moderation, acceptance, commitment, motivation to change and forgiveness.

KEY WORDS: Cognitive behavioral therapy; Combined modality therapy; Dietetics; Exercise therapy; Rehabilitation