IS NEURALTHERAPY EFFECTIVE IN PATIENTS WITH FIBROMYALGIA?

Objective: We aimed to investigate the efficiency of neuraltherapy on pain and daily living activities in patients with fibromyalgia. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 20 female patients with neck and upper back pain all of whom were meeting the 1990 and 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for fibromyalgia into the study. Patients’ generalized widespread pain was assessed by the visual analog scale (VAS;0-10), and the quality of life states was measured by using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short- Form Health Survey (SF-36). Intracutaneous quaddle injections were applied to the segmental areas of C1-T5 and to the trigger points on the upper back as local treatment. The 13-20 x 0.4mm sized needles -all of which contains 1% lidocaine- were used for the injections. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 18.0 for Windows, and demographic data were expressed a mean±standart deviation. To compare two related samples, Wilcoxon test was used at p<0.05 relevance level.. Results: The mean values of age, height, and body mass index were 42.65± 8,2, 156.2± 15,1, and 24.56± 5,2, respectively. All of the SF-36 parameters, particularly, physical functioning and bodily pain values improved after neural therapy. VAS score values showed significant improvement after the neural therapy, as well. Conclusion: This study showed that neuraltherapy improves pain and functionality in patients with fibromyalgia