Quick Study

FIBROMYALGIA

Exercise appears to help ease the pain.

THE QUESTION When medication doesn't relieve the chronic pain of fibromyalgia, might exercise help?

THIS STUDY randomly assigned 207 women who were taking medication for fibromyalgia to do aerobic and flexibility exercises, to do strength training as well as the exercises, to participate in an educational program that teaches self-management of the condition, or to do the exercises and educational program. The women exercised in a group for 60 minutes two days a week and one more day on their own. For the educational program, a seven-session standardized course offered by the Arthritis Foundation, the women met for two hours every other week. They could continue taking all medications. After four months, women in all groups that did exercise reported less pain and fatigue and improvements in emotional health and ability to function that averaged 25 percent, compared with no gains in the education-only group. Those who exercised were also more confident of their ability to do a task; this feeling of self-efficacy declined among the others.

WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? Women with fibromyalgia, which affects up to one in 50 people in the United States -- about 90 percent of them women, most middle-aged. The cause of the condition, characterized by muscular pain, tender spots on the body and fatigue, is unknown.

CAVEATS The women assessed their own progress after treatment. About a third of the participants did not complete the study. The study did not include a group that received no treatment.

FIND THIS STUDY Nov. 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

LEARN MORE ABOUT fibromyalgia at http://www.niams.nih.gov and http://www.rheumatology.org/public.