Low-Intensity Physical Exercise Improves Pain Catastrophizing and Other Psychological and Physical Aspects in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Ruth Izquierdo-Alventosa, Marta Inglés, Sara Cortés-Amador, Lucia Gimeno-Mallench, Javier Chirivella-Garrido, Juri Kropotov and Pilar Serra-Añó
Additional contact information
Ruth Izquierdo-Alventosa: Unidad de Biomecánica Clínica (UBIC Research Group), Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Universitat de València, 46010 València, Spain
Marta Inglés: Freshage Research Group, Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Universitat de València, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES-ISCIII), Fundación Investigación del Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia (INCLIVA), 46010 València, Spain
Sara Cortés-Amador: Unidad de Biomecánica Clínica (UBIC Research Group), Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Universitat de València, 46010 València, Spain
Lucia Gimeno-Mallench: Freshage Research Group, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitat de València, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES-ISCIII), Fundación Investigación del Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia (INCLIVA), 46010 València, Spain
Javier Chirivella-Garrido: Fundación Fivan, Centro de Neurorehabilitación, 46005 Valencia, Spain
Juri Kropotov: N.P. Bechtereva Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Science, 197022 St. Petersburg, Russia
Pilar Serra-Añó: Unidad de Biomecánica Clínica (UBIC Research Group), Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Universitat de València, 46010 València, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic syndrome characterized by widespread pain and other physical and psychological features. In this study, we aimed to analyze the effect of a low-intensity physical exercise (PE) program, combining endurance training and coordination, on psychological aspects (i.e., pain catastrophizing, anxiety, depression, stress), pain perception (i.e., pain acceptance, pressure pain threshold (PPT), and quality of life and physical conditioning (i.e., self-perceived functional capacity, endurance and functional capacity, power and velocity) in women with FM. For this purpose, a randomized controlled trial was carried out. Thirty-two women with FM were randomly allocated to a PE group (PEG, n = 16), performing an eight-week low-intensity PE program and a control group (CG, n = 16). Pain catastrophizing, anxiety, depression, stress, pain acceptance, PPT, quality of life, self-perceived functional capacity, endurance and functional capacity, power, and velocity were assessed before and after the intervention. We observed a significant improvement in all studied variables in the PEG after the intervention ( p < 0.05). In contrast, the CG showed no improvements in any variable, which further displayed poorer values for PPT ( p < 0.05). In conclusion, a low-intensity combined PE program, including endurance training and coordination, improves psychological variables, pain perception, quality of life, and physical conditioning in women with FM.

Keywords: fibromyalgia; pain catastrophizing; physical exercise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3634/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3634/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3634-:d:361499

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().