Multidisciplinary treatment in patients with fibromyalgia. Merida, Venezuela

Fibromyalgia is a benign disability disease with 11 to18 pain points that impairs quality of life. The present research was done in order to evaluate the effectiveness of multidisciplinary treatment and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia attending the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at Instituto Autonomo Hospital Universitario de los Andes (IAHULA), Merida, Venezuela. It is a prospective, longitudinal and experimental study with 32 female patients referred from Rheumatology, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry Services of the (IAHULA), who met clinical criteria according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Pain was quantified with VAS scale and quality of life with EQ-5D scale, before, during and after treatment based on multidisciplinary education, relaxation therapy, and low impact aerobics three times a week supervised progressively in intensity and lasting for 12 weeks. The ACR criteria had average of 12.59 painful points, and predominated fatigue, stiffness, restless sleep and irritable colon. It was found that the mean age was 47.8 years, most were married teachers with anxiety and depression. The VAS had a baseline mean progression of 5.6, then 3.8 during and 2.69 at the end of the rehabilitation treatment. The quality of life test EQ-5D with had a mean of 79.38 at the beginning and 53.39 at the end of the treatment. We conclude that the rehabilitation treatment in fibromyalgia under a multidisciplinary approach is useful to reduce pain, reduce morbidity and improve the quality of life.