Pain neuroscience education improves quality of life when added to aquatic exercise therapy for women with fibromyalgia: randomized controlled clinical trial

PurposeThe aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of adding Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) to an aquatic therapy protocol on pain, fibromyalgia (FMS) impact, quality of life and sleep.Materials and MethodsSeventy-five women were randomly allocated into two groups: aquatic exercises (AEG, n = 36) and aquatic exercises + PNE (PNG, n = 39). The primary outcome was pain, and the secondary outcomes were FMS impact, quality of life, sleep and pain sensitivity (pressure pain thresholds - PPTs). Participants performed 45-min sessions of aquatic exercises, twice a week, for 12 weeks. PNG also received 4 PNE sessions during this period. Participants were assessed four times: initial (before treatment), after 6 weeks (intermediate) and 12 weeks (final) of treatment and after 12 weeks after the end of treatment (follow-up).ResultsBoth groups improved pain after treatment, with no difference between them (p > 0.05, partial n(2) 0.10). FMS impact and PPTs improved after treatment with no difference between groups, and sleep did not change. Quality of life improved several domains for both groups, with slightly better results for the PNG, with low effect sizes between groups.ConclusionsThe present results show that the addition of PNE to an aquatic exercise intervention did not provide larger effects than aquatic exercises alone for people with FMS concerning pain intensity, but provided benefit for health-related quality of life for this population.PerspectiveThe addition of 4 Pain Neuroscience Education sessions to an aquatic exercises protocol did not add benefits for women with fibromyalgia syndrome on pain, fibromyalgia impact, and sleep, but improved quality of life and pain sensitivity.