Massage Therapy in the Management of Fibromyalgia: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE:To study the clinical effectiveness of Swedish massage in fibromyalgia syndrome [FMS].METHODS:: Swedish massage [SM] was compared with standard physician care [SC] without or with interim follow-up telephone calls [SCPC] in 37 subjects. RESULTS:Baseline Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales [AIMS] of physical activity, depression, anxiety, and pain for all patients indicated poor status. Baseline Quality of Well Being [QWB] scores showed impaired quality of life; the Rheumatology Attitudes Index [RAI] scores indicated helplessness. All but five subjects had a Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression score above 15. At four weeks [7-SM/8-SC/9-SCPC], the SM group improved in RAI [P = 0.06] and AIMS mobility [P = 0.05]. At 28 weeks [4-SM/6-SC/6-SCPC], there were no significant intergroup differences. The 16 study completers had significantly lower baseline QWB scores [P = 0.025] than dropouts.CONCLUSIONS: Although our study showed some effect of SM in FMS at four weeks, benefits were modest and not significant at later time-points, perhaps attributable to low subject retention. The subject warrants further exploration.