title: Vagal modulation and symptomatology following a 6-month aerobic exercise program for women with fibromyalgia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effects of a supervised aerobic exercise programme on heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and symptom severity in women with fibromyalgia (FM).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two women with FM were randomly allocated to one of two groups: aerobic exercise (AE) or usual care control for 24 weeks. Women allocated to AE performed two aerobic exercise sessions per week of 45-60 min duration including 15-20 min of steady-state aerobic exercise at 60-65% of predicted maximum heart rate (HRmax) and 15 min of interval training at 75-80% HRmax (six repetitions of 1.5 min, with 1 min interpolated rest intervals). Cardiac autonomic modulation was assessed using power spectral analysis of HRV. Symptom severity was assessed by a 10 cm visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, sleep disturbances, stiffness, anxiety and depression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 24 weeks, the women in the exercise group showed an increase (4.8 ± 0.2 to 5.2 ± 0.2) in total power (LnTP, p<0.001), low frequency power (LnLF, p<0.01), high frequency power (LnHF, p<0.001), and the root-mean-square of successive R-R intervals (rMSSD, p<0.001). In addition, significant group-by-time interaction effects were observed for LnHF (p=0.036) and LnLF/HF (p=0.014). Improvements in anxiety and depression were also observed in AE versus control patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that a programme of aerobic exercise training induced changes in cardiac autonomic nervous system modulation in FM and that these changes in HRV parameters were accompanied by changes in anxiety and depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: Borja
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sañudo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: Moisés
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Hoyo
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Figueroa
authors.affiliation: Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, U.K.
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Saxton
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006304:Health Status; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*