Effects of a health education program on cytokines and cortisol levels in fibromyalgia patients: a randomized controlled trial
Abstract
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome characterized by widespread chronic pain associated to other symptoms, such as: fatigue, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. Health education programs (HEP) have emerged as good non-pharmacological strategies to treat it. However, it is still not clear if the benefits are only subjective, or it has also objective impacts on immune and or neuroendocrine systems. Fifty-eight fibromyalgia women were randomly allocated in experimental group (n = 27) or control group (n = 31). The experimental group was submitted to HEP treatment for 11 weeks, while control group did not receive intervention at the same period. All data were collected at zero and 11th week by a blinded researcher. The statistical analysis were made in GraphPad Prism software (version 5.0) with significant level adjusted for α = 0.05. Forty-four patients concluded the full study, 21 in the experimental group and 23 in the control group. Intragroup and intergroup analysis revealed that treatment induced significant increases of IL-4 plasma levels, anti-inflammatory cytokine/inflammatory cytokine ratio (AC/IC ratio), salivary cortisol levels, in addition to significant decreases on FIQ scores. Intergroup variation analyses revealed also significant increases of IL-10 plasma levels. The results presented suggest that this kind of HEP could induce subjective and objective changes (immune and neuroendocrine), that could explain, at least in part the improvement of fibromyalgia…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 31 participants or records.
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