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.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether mild water-filtered near infrared whole-body hyperthermia (NI-WBH) produces an additional benefit when applied as an adjunct to a standard 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 randomly 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 Questionnaire, 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.


CONCLUSIONS
The study indicates that NI-WBH is a worthwhile adjunct to MR in the treatment of FM.
Brockow
Thomas
T
Spa Medicine Research Institute Bad Elster, Lindenstr. 5, 08645 Bad Elster, Germany. thomas.brockow@fbk.sms.sachsen.de
Wagner
Andreas
A
Franke
Annegret
A
Offenbächer
Martin
M
Resch
Karl L
KL
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D006875:Hydrotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome